Surprise Heirs I: Illegitimacy, Patrimonial Rights, and Legal Nationalism in Luso-Brazilian Inheritance, 1750-1821

By Linda Lewin

This book situates the changing patrimonial rights of illegitimate offspring in Brazil within a system of Luso-Brazilian heirship that operated during the final half century of Portuguese colonial rule. Besides offering the first detailed explanation of how the rules of inheritance applied to people born outside wedlock, the book's focus on illegitimacy and patrimony provides a new perspective for assessing how family formation figured broadly in late colonial Brazil's social evolution.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804738815
• ISBN13: 9780804738811
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 1.08 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.2" x 9.4"