Sob a farda da polícia : controle social, trabalho, cor e prestígio (Porto Alegre, fins do século XIX)

Abstract

This work intends to analyze the presence and the popular experiences, mainly of the black individuals, in the police institutions of Porto Alegre in the final years of century XIX, moment in which the police gains importance like mechanism of social and urban control. In order to analyze this presence, we use the Santa Casa Sickness Books that bring the color reference of the individuals in their registers, even after 1888, thus allowing the elaboration of a "profile" of these policemen. Also discussed are the labor valorization discourses present in the newspaper A Federação, as well as the practical measures adopted by the government, of control and repression of vagrancy and idleness, through the column of "police occurrences" presented in the journal. I intend to understand, through a social history of work, what meanings have been the engagement of black individuals in the police service, considering this activity as an integral part of the urban work worlds, and how this uniformed work dialogued with the perspectives of these individuals, refers to the expectations of social ascension, obtaining of prestige / honor, in addition to its relations with the other sectors of the society, as women, immigrants and other popular white and black.