This article addresses the complex the mes of ethnicity and social classification in eighteenth -and nineteenth-century Brazil. The use of large data bases, derived from independent primary sources, makes it possible to envision the outline of that complexity as it evolved in Minas Gerais. Ethnic/color and social catego ries are carefully examined and the logic of their use begins to emerge through the intersecting of names and individual attributes as they appear in baptismal and marriage registers, as well as in nominal lists. As a detailed case study of the parish of São José do Rio das Mortes, it furnishes preliminary answers to que ries about maternity and marriage practices and sheds light on how ethnic and color designations were consolidated across several generations. Finally, the findings point to a prevalence of exogamic unions among slaves, while endoga my and perhaps even a process of racia lization held sway among the free and freed populations of all color and ethnic designations.
ethnicity; color; social classification; exogamy; endogamy; racialization
