Portuguese

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Portuguese

ETHNONYMS: none

Orientation

Location. Continental Portugal occupies approximately one-sixth of the Iberian Peninsula in western Europe. It is bordered on the south and west by the Atlantic Ocean and on the east and north by Spain. Portuguese also inhabit the islands of the Azores and Madeira in the Atlantic. As a result of colonial expansion and of massive emigration in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Portuguese-speaking peoples live in Asia, Africa, South America, the United States, Canada, Australia, and northwestern Europe.

Demography. In 1984 the population of continental and island Portugal was estimated at 10,128,000. The population increased during the twentieth century until the 1960s, when it declined by more than 200,000 because of the extensive emigration to northern Europe after 1961. In the 1970s, the population of continental Portugal increased by more than a quarter of a million, largely as a result of the retornados, the settlers who returned to Portugal from Africa after deColonization. By comparison with other nations of Europe, Portugal has a high birthrate, though this rate is regionally differentiated and has declined in recent years. In 1985 the birthrate was 12.5 and the death rate 9.6.

Linguistic Affiliation. The Portuguese language has largely Latin roots, though some words are Arabic in origin. Portuguese was made the official language under the reign of King Dinis (1279-1325). Unlike Spain, continental Portugal demonstrates a high degree of linguistic homogeneity.

History and Cultural Relations

Humans have inhabited Portugal since Paleolithic times. Over the course of prehistory and history, various peoples have settled in the region, though the modern Portuguese trace their descent to the Lusitanians, a branch of the Iberian populations that spread over the peninsula in the third millennium b.c. Lusitanians made contact with Celtic peoples who moved into the region after 900 b.c. Roman armies invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 212 b.c. The Romans established important towns at the present-day sites of Braga, Porto, Beja, and Lisbon. An invasion of Swabians in the fifth century a.d. and of Moors in the eighth century a.d. added new elements to the Portuguese population, though Moorish Influence was much stronger in the south than in the north. Portugal emerged as an independent kingdom in 1140 with its capital in the northern city of Guimarães. As part of the reconquest, whereby the Moors were pushed out of the Peninsula, Lisbon was made the capital in 1298 and the boundaries of Portugal as they exist today were definitively determined. Early statehood and a national identity with deep historical roots are the basis of the relative homogeneity of Portuguese society. In the fifteenth century the Portuguese inaugurated their age of discovery and for three centuries built and expanded their empire. The loss of Brazil in 1822 and a series of economic and political crises led to a decline in the world position of the Portuguese during the nineteenth century. The monarchy was eliminated in 1910 with the establishment of the First Portuguese Republic, and this in turn was replaced by the authoritarian dictatorship of Antonio Salazar in 1926. Salazar formed his New State in 1932 on corporatist political principles. The Salazarist regime survived until 1974, when it was overthrown by a group of military men frustrated by the hopelessness of the colonial wars in Africa, wars that had escalated after 1961. The entire African colonial system was dismantled after 1974. In the late 1980s the Portuguese turned their attention toward Europe to become part of the European Community. However, linguistic and other cultural ties with former colonies, including Brazil, are maintained.

Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activities. The subsistence and commercial activities of the Portuguese vary regionally. The Azores are largely agricultural, with some islands depending primarily on dairying and meat production and others on a combination of cattle raising, whaling, fishing, and smallscale agriculture (sugar beets, tea, tobacco, and vegetables). These activities have been supplemented by more than a Century of emigration to the United States. Madeira also relies on agriculture (wine, bananas, sugarcane), fishing, and whaling, in addition to small-scale cottage industry and tourism. The embroidery industry, introduced by an Englishwoman in the middle of the nineteenth century, employs approximately 70,000 female workers. Large numbers of Madeirans have emigrated to South Africa and, to a lesser extent, to Canada. The people of the Algarve are engaged in agriculture, fishing, and tourism. Cash-crop agriculture (wheat, olives, cork) predominates in the Alentejo. In central continental Portugal, a variety of irrigated grains (wheat, corn, rice) are cultivated on medium-sized family farms. The peasants of northern continental Portugal cultivate maize (rye in the northeast), potatoes, wine grapes, and vegetables. Many also raise dairy cattle. Along the coastline are populations engaged in fishing. Fish canning is an important export-oriented industry. Like the Azores, the local economies of northern Portugal have been supplemented by centuries of emigration, and as a result men have developed artisan skills as masons, carpenters, etc. Around the cities of Braga, Porto, and Guimarães there is a population of worker-peasants who are employed in the old and important textile industry. Furniture making, food processing, winemaking, and pulp and paper production are among the other industrial activities in this region. Heavier industry (steelworking, shipbuilding, iron production) and the bulk of the industrial working class are concentrated in the Lisbon-Setubal region in the south. In recent years, the construction industry has become important in several parts of the country.

In 1984 there were 4,695,700 Portuguese counted in the labor force. Of these, 22 percent were engaged in agriculture, forestry, and fishing; 22 percent in manufacturing; 13 percent in distribution and hotels; 8 percent in construction; 27 percent in other sectors; and 8 percent unemployed. The estimated national income per person was $1,820. Labor force figures frequently underestimate the participation of women who, since Roman times, have been making important Contributions to the rural economy of northern Portugal. Some anthropologists view these activities as the basis of significant economic and political power accorded to peasant women. Bourgeois and upper-class women, on the other hand, were at one time restricted to the domestic sphere. This situation has changed significantly in the last twenty years as women have received advanced education, professional training, and full legal equality.

Land Tenure. Portugal is characterized by significant regional variations in patterns of land tenure. In the Southernmost district of continental Portugal, the Algarve, landholdings are small and cultivated by owners, tenants, or sharecroppers. The region between the Algarve and the Tagus River, the Alentejo, has traditionally been a region of low population density, latifundia that originated in the Roman estate system, and landless day laborers. Prior to 1974, approximately 500 absentee landlords owned the bulk of the land and were disinterested in capital investment and agricultural development. The agrarian reform movement of the post-1974 period altered the system of land tenure in the south, though some of the early "revolutionary" expropriations have been restored to their original owners. By contrast, the north of the country is characterized by much greater Population density (higher in the northeast), land fragmentation, "minifundia" that originated with the system brought by the Germanic invaders of the fifth and sixth centuries, and subsistence peasants. These peasants (lavradores ) own, rent, and/or sharecrop several fields scattered throughout a village and in neighboring villages. Most of the farms are of less than 3 hectares. Although they are not as numerous here as in southern Portugal, there is also a population of landless day laborers (jornaleiros ) in northern Portugal, many of whom are women. Jornaleiros provide supplemental labor to the Peasant household. In the much less densely populated region of northeastern Portugal, ethnographers have described a form of communal property ownership and communal farming that survived well into the twentieth century.

Kinship, Marriage, and Family

Kinship and Domestic Groups. Although all Portuguese reckon kinship bilaterally, the structure of domestic groups and the kinship links that are emphasized vary by both region and social class. Portuguese kinship terms have Latin roots, with the exception of the Greek roots of tio (uncle) and tia (aunt). In northern Portugal, nicknames (apelidos ) are extremely important as terms of reference. Some anthropologists have suggested that they connote moral equivalence in otherwise socially stratified rural communities. In the Northwest, nicknames serve to identify localized kin groups linked through females. In this region there is a preference for uxorilocality and uxorivicinality, both of which can be linked to male emigration. At some point in the domestic cycle, Households in northern Portugal tend to be complex, many of them composed of a three-generation stem family. Some villages of the northeast follow a custom of natalocal residence for many years after marriage. In southern Portugal, however, a Household usually is a nuclear family. The obligations between friends sometimes are felt to be more important than those between kin. Among the rural peasantry, particularly in the northwest, household headship is held jointly by a married couple, who are referred to as o patrão and a patroa. By contrast, among urban bourgeois groups and in the south the concept of a dominant male head of household is more prevalent. Spiritual kinship ties are established at baptism and marriage. Kin are frequently chosen to serve as godparents (padrinhos ), and when this arrangement occurs the godparent-godchild relationship takes precedence over the kinship relationship.

Marriage. The marriage rate has demonstrated a progressive rise during the twentieth century. Age at marriage has been characterized by both spatial and temporal variation—that is, marriage generally occurs later in the north than in the south, though differences are slowly disappearing. In southern Portugal there are significant numbers of consensual unions, and northern Portugal has had high rates of Permanent spinsterhood. Although it has declined since 1930, the illegitimacy rate formerly was high in rural northern Portugal. It remains high in Porto and Lisbon. Marriage has generally been class-endogamous and there is a tendency, though by no means a rule, for villages to be endogamous. Although the Catholic church traditionally prohibited cousin marriage within the fourth degree (inclusive of third cousins), dispensations as well as unions between first cousins were by no means unusual among all classes of Portuguese society. This kind of marriage was traditionally associated with a desire to rejoin divided properties.

Inheritance. In accordance with the Civil Code of 1867, the Portuguese practice partible inheritance. Parents, However, have the right to dispose freely of a third share (terço ) of their property, and women share the right to both receive and bestow property. (The Civil Code of 1978 did not significantly change the articles pertaining to these practices.) Among the peasants of northern Portugal, where inheritance is generally postmortem, parents use the promise of the terço as a form of old-age security by marrying a child, often a daughter, into the household. At their death, this child becomes the owner of the house (casa ). The rest of the property is divided equally among all heirs. Partilhas, whether in the north or the south, can be an occasion for friction between siblings since land is variable in quality. Some peasants hold land under long-term lease agreements; traditionally these agreements also were passed on "for three lives" in one piece to one heir, their value being calculated against the total assets. The Civil Code of 1867 eliminated the system of entailed estates (vínculos ) that made it possible for wealthier classes to pass on property to a single heir, usually by a rule of male primogeniture. Wealthier landowners have been able to keep property intact by having one heir buy out the interests of his siblings.

Sociopolitical Organization

Social Organization. Salazarist Portugal was a hierarchical society with a small upper class composed of latifundists, industrialists, financiers, top military personnel, the Catholic episcopate, university professors, and other professionals; a small middle class composed of people in the service sector; and a mass of urban and rural poor. Since 1960, as urbanization has progressed, a lower-middle class of skilled workers and technicians has emerged.

Political Organization. Before 1974, the Portuguese state was based on corporative bodies that in theory channeled class interests but in practice were often circumvented by means of personal contacts. Electoral politics were absent. Between 1974—when the Salazar regime was bloodlessly overthrown—and 1976, the Portuguese established a constitutional democratic representative system. Recently, some of the more socialist clauses of the 1976 constitution have been revised. At the local level, villages are still run by a parish council (junta da frequesia ), the members of which are elected by village households. Throughout the Salazar period, the juntas had little real power and few economic resources of their own, though the members had local prominence. They depended on the câmara, the administrative body in the county seat, and today the câmara is still the important unit of political organization and administration. Since 1974 Political parties and agricultural cooperatives have assumed importance, though participation varies by region. The other important local social institutions are the religious Brotherhoods (confrarias ). Traditionally they served as lending institutions; today they are largely ceremonial and cover funeral expenses.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. The bulk of the Portuguese population is nominally Catholic. During its history, Portugal has Experienced waves of political anticlericalism—in the latter half of the eighteenth century; during the 1830s, when religious orders were banned and church properties were confiscated; and under the First Portuguese Republic, when education was secularized, properties again confiscated, folk celebrations restricted, and religious orders abolished. Under Salazar, Portugal experienced a religious revival, and the position of the local priest in the villages throughout the country was greatly enhanced. Since 1974, however, this position has been challenged, and in recent years there has been a decline in the number of clergy. A form of "pious" anticlericalism exists among the people who view the priest as a spiritual leader on the one hand and a man like every other man on the other. Religiosity is generally weaker in Lisbon and in the south of continental Portugal and stronger in the center, in the north, and on the islands. Portuguese Catholicism has produced fewer mystics than that of Spain, and people develop personal relationships with particular saints who are never represented with the suffering and anguish that characterizes some Spanish representations. Much of Portuguese religious life exists beyond the official structures of the Catholic church.

Ceremonies. The rhythms of local village life are marked by various celebrations honoring the saints. Romarias (pilgrimages) to regional shrines are a central feature of religious practice, especially in northern Portugal. Portuguese villagers also celebrate an annual festa (generally but not always to honor the patron saint) that includes a procession and combines elements of both the sacred and the secular. In the Azores, the festas of the Holy Ghost (Espirito Santo) predominate. In conjunction with these festas people fulfill Religious vows (promessas ). Cults of death, magical practices, sorcery (feitiço ), witchcraft (bruxeria ), which is largely associated with notions of illness and healing, and beliefs in envy (inveja ) that invokes the evil eye are still part of the belief System of many Portuguese.

Arts. Craftspeople can be found throughout Portugal. The rugs made in Arraiolas (in southern Portugal) are well known internationally. Women of the north and the island of Madeira produce embroidered goods, many of which are sold to tourists. This is also true of pottery, which varies in style according to geographic region. Artistic expression is also evident in the items that are produced for decorating the floats carried in religious processions.

Medicine. Modern medical practice now reaches all sectors of Portuguese society. Few women, for example, give birth at home, a practice that was common into the 1960s. Good health is often associated with what is natural, and changes in the diet (the consumption of unnatural and synthetic foodstuffs) are frequently cited as the cause of diseases such as stomach cancer. Folk medical practices are still prevalent in some parts of the country. Curers use a combination of prayer, religious paraphernalia, and traditional and Modern medicines in their healing. Among some Azorean Portuguese at home and abroad there is a high incidence of Machado-Joseph disease. It is an inherited disorder of the central nervous system, colloquially known as the "stumbling disease" because the carriers demonstrate a staggering and lurching gait, spasticity, and uncoordinated body movements.

Death and Afterlife. Death is a fundamental part of Portuguese village life. Church bells toll to send the message that a neighbor (vizinho ) has passed away. In some parts of Portugal the gates and doors of the dead person's house are opened to allow anyone to enter, and relatives begin to wail around a body prepared for viewing. Burial is in local cemeteries, and family graves are well tended by living kin. Each village has several burial societies (confrarias) to which individuals belong in order to help defray the costs of a funeral and help pay for commemorative masses that continue for several years after death. All Saints' Day is an occasion for special reverence for those who have departed. Mourning is signified by the wearing of black; a widow will generally wear black for the rest of her life, while other kin remain in mourning for varying lengths of time depending on their age and relationship to the deceased. Portugal is also characterized by various cults of death—for example, beliefs about souls in purgatory or incorrupt bodies. Such beliefs are by no means confined to rural areas; in Portuguese cities a network of spirit mediums who can contact the dead for the living has arisen.