ABSTRACT
It is generally accepted that there were few changes in the structure of the Brazilian colonial family, and that only in the nineteenth century did the power of the patriarch decline. This chapter challenges the view of an immutable colonial family by describing significant changes in the practice of dowry between the mid-seventeenth and mid-eighteenth centuries that reflect a shift in patriarchal/parental power. By the first half of the eighteenth century, though dowry was still important, its practice had altered. Daughters still received substantial dowries, but the inequality between dowries and sons’ inheritance was not as pronounced as in the preceding century. The economic contribution of the marriage partners also changed by the middle of the eighteenth century. The daughters of seventeenth-century Paulista property owners had married either penniless Portuguese newcomers or family friends or relatives who contributed less property to the marriage than their wives.
