Transgressão e controle sobre as mulheres na cidade de Goiás entre 1860 a 1900

Abstract

Magali Engel (1988), in "Meretrizes e doutores: Saber médico e prostituição no Rio de Janeiro (1840-1890)," states that "the conception of the prostitute is constructed in opposition to the mother and wife," considering that the prostitute would represent the opposite of what society, which valued morality and decency, upheld. The actions of these transgressive women were aimed at resisting poverty. The research sought to understand and describe the behaviors that frequently led to the imprisonment of these women. The objective of this work is to analyze prostitution in the City of Goiás at the end of the 19th century, between 1860 and 1900. In light of this proposal, to understand who these women were and the context in which they were inserted, it was necessary to analyze the concepts of vagrancy, vagabondage, and prostitution. Similarly, the research object was framed by selecting a historiography and analyzing documents, all from the 19th century, including police reports, newspapers, maps of the public jail of the City of Goiás, municipal codes, criminal cases, Terms of Good Living, the Criminal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, and urban taxes. The investigation was conducted through documentary and bibliographic analysis, discussion of theoretical material, and data collection. In the first chapter, I draw on the text "As estratégias de purificação dos espaços na capital da Província de Goiás-1835- 1843" by Cristina Cássia Moraes (1995) and the texts by Gustavo Neiva Coelho, "O espaço urbano em Vila Boa: entre o veredito e vernacular" (2001), to describe the public space. This debate revolves around the discussion the State had regarding these spaces. In the second chapter, we will discuss the laws, how they were created to produce regulations, and how they "organize" public spaces, bodies, and the reprehensible behaviors of prostitutes. For the debate in this second part of the text, we will use "A invenção da Vadiagem: os termos de bem viver e a sociedade disciplinar no Império do Brasil" by Eduardo Martins (2011) and the work of professor Danilo Rabelo (1997), "Os excessos do corpo: a normalização dos comportamentos na Cidade de Goiás (1822-1889)". Prostitution is "understood as the conscious practice of exchanging or negotiating for money or other financial or material compensation" (Vieira, 2017, p. 1). In the City of Goiás, these women were not economically privileged and were always associated with disturbance, living on the margins of society. They live by their own means, working during the day washing clothes, sewing, or cooking, and at night they prostituted themselves.There was no designated prostitution zone in the city; the services were performed in the homes of these women. Their actions violated the law. They transgressed not because they lacked values but because their values were different—it was the culture of the streets, of the working class, of sporadic labor, and of popular traditions.