Women in the colonial economy : the agency of female food sellers in Brazil's diamond district

Abstract

Women, particularly in the colonial context, have often been reduced to a gender-specific role, subjected to patriarchal rule. The historical agency exercised by the street vendors in Brazil’s eighteenth-century diamond district, however, is indicative for a female contribution to historical change on different terms. This article discusses the public and economic participation of these Afro-Brazilian street vendors. As such, an analysis of these negras de tabuleiro borrows from and fits within theoretical models developed by postcolonial scholars, subaltern studies, and a number of Brazilian historians working on women’s history and slave studies.