| THE LIFE IN THE COLONIAL ROUTINE |
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| In the main corners, there were lamps supplied with whale oil |
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| In the century XVII,the houses of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios de Paraty Village, built around the main church, were more distant from the others, and it was common have the backyard surrounded where, due to lack of foodstuff , there were subsistence garden, besides of having chickens and pigs. The kitchens of these houses stayed outside the house, nearby the backyard, to avoid that the stove vapor coming the firewood stove reached the house. The dominant class was formed by the masters of mill who lived in their farms and not in the village. |
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| In the century XVIII, with the Gold discovery in Minas Gerais, the Paraty economy was diversified. The products trade for the mines supply, created a new elite: the traders . They began to built two-storey houses in the village, in the inferior part there was the commercial part and in the superior one the residence.
In the end of the century XIX, there wasn't water in pipes in the houses. To worse the situation, the village was located next the sea, impeding the construction of wells and water tanks. The construction of two fountains , one at Largo de Santa Rita and other at the Praça do Chafariz, improved the problem of water in the village. So, the dwellers or their slaves searched for water to drink, to take a bath and to clean porcelains and pans. The men took bath on the rivers to save up water. But women took bath with clay jars. But the most common for both sex, was the "lava-pés", where they have only the feet washed to avoid the feared chigoes. There weren't bathrooms in the house and the physiological needs were made in the urinals, and thrown away on the sea or river. The Posture Code of Paraty, approved by "Câmara Municipal" in 1870, regulated about the matter in the article 25: "Every filthiness dejects will be made in the Perequê-Açu river or in the sea, coming in the slave or the person in water up to the knees. When there is filthy matters, it cannot be made the pouring out unless in covered vases and after the "toque de recolher"* and up to four o' clock am". |
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| The basic food was beans with manioc flour |
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| The daily activities like, wake up, eat and sleep were defined by the sunrise. To illuminate the houses during the night, were used candles or lamps supplied with animal oil (specially the whale oil) or vegetable (mamona oil), but due to the difficulty in obtaining them, they had to be extinguished. In the main corners of the city, there were lamps which were lighted up with after the sunrise, during twenty days per month - in the full moon week they were not lighted up. The electrical light obtained with diesel generator reached Paraty in the middle of the century XX. |
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| If by one side, the houses of Paraty village followed the Portuguese architecture and the way of building - walls of wattle daub houses , "sapê" roofs - and the furniture was from Indian Origin. Came from the Indians the nets and "straw bed" to sleep, the clay ceramics to cook the baskets of vegetable fiber to keep foodstuff, the pestles to beat the corn. The wood furniture in European style were rare and expensive objects , thus, they make part of inventory to share the inheritances. The bed become to be used in Brazil only from 1750. Up to 1800 it was not used cutlery or dishes in the meals. The food made in the firewood stove and clay pans were put on the ground and the people helped themselves by hand. In Paraty, this habit is still remembered by elder people. |
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| It was responsibility of women the food, cleaning and house organization, the command of domestic slaves (when there was) and the house industry ( soap production, candies in conserve , oil for lamps, clothing, curtains, carpets, baskets, "piaçava" brooms, feather duster). The white women , uncommon in the colonial period, were forbidden by their husbands or parents to go out in the street, except for mass, theater, or opera and, even so, only accompanied by someone. The vanity was part of women, as white as Negroes, that the first ones didn't go out without precious jewels and the second ones with a wooden cross or amulet collar. The Indian women were also produced with adornments made by feathers, teeth, and seeds and dyeing. |
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| The firewood stove stayed outside the house because of the vapor. |
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| In the meals, the basic food was beans with manioc flour (rice was introduced in the century XVIII) followed by a mixture - fish or hunting meat, generally dried by sun and salted. It made part of the culinary, the corn for bread, cake and flour productions; candies with raw brown sugar and marmalade; sylvan fruits and some vegetables. Due to the hotness and heavy food, made with pig grease, it was common a rest after lunch. |
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| Up to 1710, the Paraty port was the main access for the gold mines, being aimed by pirates. To defend the village from eventual attacks were built six fortresses . So it can realize that good part of the inhabitants were at army order. There were in the fortresses, safeguards on the alert responsible for warning the people in case of pirate ships proximity, so that everybody took their weapons and help in the port defense. The houses nearby the sea had in the last ground, a small opening in the roof in order to observe the ships arrival. If they were pirates, the dweller ran to warn the priest to ring the bell. If it were ships bringing goods, the dweller warned the traders to reduce the prices of products, because with new goods coming, the price was rapidly reduced. |
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| For entertainment of paratiense elite, there was a theater where they presented funny comedies called operas and the "cavalhadas" (specimen of competition with horses). But the main entertainment was "xibas" - parties which occurred in the countryside with music, dance and auctions of prizes and gifts. |
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| Sunday was a rest day, and it was forbidden to open stores and shops. While men liked meeting to hunt or fish, women enjoyed changing culinary recipes, making candies and other dainties. |
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| . toque de recolher - military order to make people come back their houses after horn warning of a soldier. |
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