Local Religion in Eighteenth-Century Brazilian Amazonia

This presentation will explore the control of ritual power and services in the riverine areas of Amazonia. Using material from the Lisbon inquisition and local correspondence I will build up on a series of case studies of how religious concepts, practice and experience formed a common ground for new kinds of relationships in the Amazon in the second half of the colonial period. What was the character of this common ground, and to what extent did it work? What did religion mean in this context?