Word and Power: Language and Authority in Sergipe’s Nineteenth-Century Wills

Abstract

During the nineteenth century, the decision to write a will implied recording the final thoughts and desires of someone, as well as the management of a certain part of the patrimony and the ordination of how to proceed in order to die as a faithful and true catholic. Oriented towards the future, the will was preceded by a pattern of writing that refers to the centuries-old tradition of this textual genre. Amongst the formula, it is possible for us, as historians, to trace expressions of intimacy and subjectiveness that leads us to the person who writes or dictates their last desires. Moreover, it is also noted variations and enunciates choices that communicate intentions to exercise authority. The reflections following this article were based on the effort to examine an historical source, the will, as a document that, in the past, was intentionally used to say something, to communicate power and authority. It will be demonstrated, finally, in which form and with which words the wills were employed as a material-written support to register power, to enforce the authority of the testator, and, ultimately, to maintain both, power and authority, extended in time and elongated towards the future. A future in which, luckily, would remain of the testators only their power words. 

Keywords: Wills. Language. Power. Authority. Time.