Religion and gold articulate in a significant way in the founding story of the Brazilian garimpeiro community Benzdorp, in the inlands of Suriname. In an area of small-scale gold mining near the Lawa River, a brothel marked the first settlement. Few years later, the same brothel became a church, and this remarkable fact adds yet another element to the moral economy of garimpo culture: prostitution. This paper explores the relation between prosperity and (marital and sexual) morality in the gold fields, and the role of religious institutions, practices and ideas in the imagery of wellbeing, luck, striking rich and being caught up in vicious circles of working hard and conspicuous consumption.
Suriname; migration; garimpo; gold; beliefs