Elites regionais, guerra e compadrio: a família Ribeiro de Almeida e suas redes de relações (Rio Grande do Sul, c. 1816 - c. 1844)

This paper studies the couple Bento Manoel Ribeiro and Maria Mâncio's compadrio ties in their community and proceeds to a network analysis of such connections. The Army Marshal Bento Manoel Ribeiro was among the wealthiest ranchers around Brazil's Southern frontier, and was an important political and military leader in the first half of the nineteenth century. In a society where patronage networks had remarkable relevance in local and regional power shaping, and in the exertion of authority, the compadrio network played an important role, as it reflected part of the multiple social relationships established by those elites. The main sources used in the article were baptismal records.