Canteiro colonial : trabalho, coerção e resistência

Abstract

The thesis investigates the political economy of architecture and construction in colonial Latin America, focusing on construction sites to analyse the dynamics of labour, coercion, and resistance. The investigation departs from the ontological foundations of labour, following the Lukácsian tradition. This theoretical basis allows for an analysis of how the "available time" of pre-colonial societies was converted into "surplus labour" in the colonial context. The production of monumental architecture was a privileged locus for this conversion. The dynamics of coercion and labour in the 16th-century Mexican Central Plateau are contrasted with those that developed in the Brazilian hubs of Atlantic slavery, particularly in 18th-century Bahia and Minas Gerais.In the Mexican Central Plateau, colonisation was based on indirect rule, leveraging the pre-existing hierarchical state structure. Indigenous groups even used the construction of convents as a form of palliative resistance to reaffirm political dominion over their territories. However, this constructive potential was drained by the Spanish elite-controlled indirect government for its own construction sites, such as that of Mexico City Cathedral, where wages were meagre and labour was compulsory. In contrast, Brazilian history was based on direct territorial control and a slave-based economy. Unlike in Mexico, the Brazilian colonial state lacked the power for direct coercion of labour and depended on private owners for this. The state thus resorted to large, privately managed construction projects or to modalities of renting enslaved people. The owners received the wage payment, and the enslaved were left with a fraction for their subsistence, struggling for a larger share to aspire to purchase their freedom. Despite the low effective remuneration, labour power was costly for the state, which was forced to fund the owners' income. This inhibited the production of monumental architecture in both volume and quantity. Urban wage labour, especially skilled labour, opened possibilities for freedom, though with many obstacles. The workers' struggle for freedom was comprehensive (for better working conditions, available time) and was not restricted to formal liberty. The thesis emphasises that effective freedom resides in emancipated collective labour.