Education in Antonil's conception: some reflections on his work “Cultura e Opulência do Brasil” (culture and opulence in Brazil) - DOI: 10.4025/actascihumansoc.v25i1.2201

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to discuss the Jesuit priest Abdré João Antonil’s work, entitled Cultura e Opulência do Brasil (Culture and Opulence in Brazil). Our purpose was to reflect upon the relation between labor and education, present in his work. Antonil’s text, written in 1711, explains what contents are useful and necessary for the man who reproduces the labor, according to accumulation patterns, in Brazil Colony times. The labor, done especially in the sugar mills and organized under the guidelines of discipline, objectivity, rationality, showed which contents should be learned by persons who would be responsible for the control of wealth in Brazilian land. We understand that this text is precious enough to reveal that education contents are not isolated from human relations in labor because we realize that these relations impose what education should be like in different historical times