Um aspecto da luta contra o sincretismo da cultura oral: a mulher, a noite e o sagrado nos Açores durante a época moderna

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to trace one aspect of the Catholic Reformers’ behaviour during the Ancien Regime in the Azores: The repression of women together with the controlling of everything that occurred during night. It is an act which is dictated by the fear of darkness associated with all that women do, depending on their female and magic traits. If people’s religious behaviour is syncretic, the blending of sacred and secular tendencies is more so in women’s actions, for in them fulls the suspicion that they profane religion while taking advantage of it. The documents we studied show the repression that affected popular culture while going through the process of being accepted as such by the official culture of the Age.