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This article proposes the "Misericórdias" as an intrinsically multidisciplinary research topic, articulating religious, institutional, and social history with studies on the circulation of charity and mechanisms of colonial power in the Portuguese sphere of Asia. Drawing on a historical-qualitative analysis of the origins and expansion of the confraternities, the author argues that the rapid establishment of the Santas Casas, driven by royal patronage and metropolitan normative frameworks, functioned simultaneously as an instrument of urban pacification, regulation of devout lay life, and a strategy for consolidating social hierarchies. Methodologically, the discussion mobilizes documentary comparison centered on the Compromissos: the Compromisso of Lisbon (1516) and its successive adaptation in overseas contexts, with particular emphasis on the Compromisso proper to the Misericórdia of Goa (1595) and on the regulations of the Misericórdia of Macau (drafted in 1627). As a result, it becomes evident that the normative texts were not mere exported models, but instruments for the local reconfiguration of assistance practices, conditioned by demographic compositions, cultural differences, and relations among Christian populations, converts, and subaltern groups. The article concludes that, in light of Marcel Mauss's theory of the gift, charity operated under discriminatory logics, selectively favoring recipients and strengthening elite powers, revealing charity as a social technology of colonial domination.
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The article analyzes the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Macau as a key institution in the articulation between charity, power, and the dynamics of the “nuptial market” in a colonial and mercantile context. Building on the historical function of the Misericórdias in the reconfiguration of assistance since the late 15th century, the author argues that, in Macau and other Portuguese Asian enclaves, the local specialization of charitable practice was not limited to responding to relief needs; rather, it contributed to managing social hierarchies and reproducing distinctions, especially by framing Christianized groups and urban marginalities through assistance, disciplinary, and organizational mechanisms. Methodologically, the text articulates a historical-institutional reading and documentary analysis based on the records and commitments of the Misericórdia itself, situating them within the broader trajectory of the imperial network of Misericórdias and the regime of negotiated sovereignty that characterized the Portuguese presence in Asia. As a result, it is demonstrated that the Misericórdia, by organizing resources, reputations, and opportunities, operated as a social infrastructure that conditioned matrimonial alliances, strengthened patronages, and integrated relevant sectors into the colonial moral economy. Thus, the institution emerges less as a merely philanthropic body and more as a mediator between inclusion/exclusion, authority, and social reproduction in societies marked by the expansion of trade and the weakening of traditional forms of solidarity.
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The article examines the role of the Misericórdias in the context of Portuguese enclaves in Southeast Asia between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, arguing that these confraternities were central to the production of Christian sociability and the stabilization of colonial hierarchies in territories where Portuguese sovereignty was frequently negotiated. Starting from the conquest of Malacca (1511) and the subsequent framework of routes and transits between Goa, Hormuz, and the Spice Islands, the author shifts the focus from historiography centered on “discoveries” and military campaigns to the social and institutional history of colonial daily life. Methodologically, it articulates historical reconstruction with a comparative reading of local experiences (Malacca, Ternate, Tidore, Ambon, Solor, Larantuka, and other waypoints as far as Timor), linking the persistence of the Misericórdias to the absence of municipal institutions and the predominance of military and commercial power. The main conclusions emphasize that, despite limited resources and the reduced number of Portuguese, the Misericórdias helped formulate a “Portuguese identity” primarily subordinated to Christendom, operating through social discipline, discrimination, and assistance, and functioning simultaneously as a technology of conversion, a mechanism for framing elites, and an instrument of institutional continuity for the empire.
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- Journal Article (3)