Morte no interior goiano: estudo comparativo a partir de sepultamentos em igrejas coloniais na América Latina.

Abstract

This work investigates colonial funerary practices associated with the Mother Church of Nossa Senhora da Penha de França, in Corumbá de Goiás, between the 18th and 19th centuries, from the perspective of Historical Archaeology. The central objective is to analyze how ecclesiastical architecture and burials in sacred ground expressed social hierarchies, power dynamics, and possible processes of cultural negotiation in the Brazilian hinterland. The research is based on the premise that death and its rituals constitute a privileged field for observing the imposition, adaptation, and silencing of traditions in the colonial context. The adopted methodology combines bibliographic and documentary research with a comparative analysis of three other Iberian colonial contexts: the Chapel of San Sebastián in Coporaque (Peru), representing a scenario of hybridization with Andean indigenous populations; the funerary complex of the Church of São José da Colônia in Manaus, exemplifying processes of superimposition and erasure in the Amazon; and the Church of Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Homens Pretos in Ouro Preto (Minas Gerais), which illustrates the agency and segregation of enslaved Black communities. The results demonstrate that, in contrast to the Peruvian and Mineiro cases, the context of Corumbá de Goiás shows no material evidence of syncretism or symbolic negotiation in the burials. The analyzed funerary material culture – body orientation, presence of coffins, crucifixes, and rosary beads – is entirely Christian and European, revealing the hegemony and rigidity of the Catholic colonial device in the region. It is concluded that the Mother Church functioned as a “super-artifact” of domination, reproducing in death the social exclusions of life. However, the research also indicates that the presence and resistance of African and indigenous cultures manifested vigorously in the sphere of ritual and festive life, in celebrations such as those of Santo Elesbão, Santa Efigênia, and the Divine Holy Spirit. Thus, the study highlights a dichotomy between the orthodoxy of death and the syncretism of religious life, contributing to a more complex understanding of colonial social formation in the Brazilian Central-West.