Imigrant territory: Justice practiques, rights and power in southern Brazil (19th and 20th centuries)

Abstract

This article analyzes violent conflicts between blacks and immigrants that occurred in regions of European colonization founded in the southernmost province of Brazil in the second half of the 19th century. Through criminal processes of homicide, occurred in the post-abolition period, specifically in the first decade of the 20th century, we seek to understand the meanings of disputes in spaces marked by immigration. In this sense, it was problematized through conflict situations, the use of violence as a resource of racial control, reinforcement of ethnic differences and hierarchies, as well as the defense of rights and sociocultural practices in spaces marked by the presence of the rural community of European origin. The existence of autonomous procedures of justice, revenge and pacification appear as decisions that reflect logics, perceptions and the functioning of local domain structures when certain events occur.