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African Studies in Portugal & the Lusophone World

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2022

Alvaro Correia de Nobrega
Alvaro Correia de Nobrega*
Affiliation:
Instituto Superior de Ciencias Sociais e Politicas - UTL, Lisbon
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Extract

The word “Luso” comes from an old constellation of Iberian-Celtic tribes established in the mountainous areas of today's Portugal and Spain. They were a warlike people who offered fierce resistance to the Roman conquest. However, once the territory was conquered, the romanisation was so intense that, apart from one or two words, little remained of the previous cultural legacy. One cannot even affirm that this ancestral people, the Lusitans, were the main basis of today's Portuguese population. We can, however, see the undeniable importance of these tribes from their numerous archaeological remains. However, as Jorge Dias, an eminent Portuguese anthropologist notes: “the country was destined to be a meeting point of many races, coming from the Mediterranean, like the Phoenicians, who secured the ports, and others from the extreme north, like the Normans who invaded its coasts”.

Type
Articles
Information
African Research and Documentation , Volume 90: African research & documentation in the new millennium: Papers presented at the SCOLMA 40<span class='sup'>th</span> Anniversary Conference, Oxford, June 2002 , 2002 , pp. 71 - 89
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2002

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References

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Perhaps one of the first demonstrations of Portuguese national awareness is the epic poem written by Camões dedicated to the last king of the dynasty of Avis, immediately before the Spanish domain over Portugal. See Luis Vaz de Camões, Os Lusíadas.Google Scholar
For the basic elements of the Portuguese culture see Jorge Dias, op. cit., passim.Google Scholar
Moreira, Adriano establishes a classification of the Portuguese communities through language and/or culture. He writes: “(…) There are communities of Portuguese language, communities of Portuguese descendants where the language keeps memory alive, and communities of Portuguese culture whose domestic language is different. The first includes those countries which have the Portuguese as their official language, Brazil being the most perfect example; the communities descended from emigrants who had suffered, for their own benefit, the process of integration into the host countries, as happened in California (…); finally, lands and people where Portuguese sovereignty and evangelisation have passed, as happened in the East, leaving standards and models of behaviour, but where the identity is dependent on other cultural areas”. (Adriano Moreira, Estudos da Conjuntum Internadonal, D. Quixote, Lisboa, 1999, p. 234.)Google Scholar
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For the Portuguese, religion rather than race, determined social relations. Again, in this sense, Avelino Teixeira da Mota enhances the similarity between Portuguese and Arabs: “The Portuguese expansion in Africa, as the Arab one, was not ethnocentric and it was done by a system that had religion as its base. To the Arabs, an African entered their community by embracing Islam. To the Portuguese, a black man easily entered their society when he was converted to Christianity”. (Idem, p. 29.)Google Scholar
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For a description of the activity in each one of“these sectors, see: de Almeida, António, “Alguns Aspectos da Ocupação Cientifica dos Territórios do Ultramar”, in Boletim da Academia de Ciências de Lisboa, 34,1962, 8-10.Google Scholar
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