Reform in the kingdom, reform in the empire -- Designing conversion -- New temples and new priests : the establishment of religious orders in Goan villages -- Tools of Christianisation : shaping memory, understanding, and will -- Initial moves : discontent, resistance, acquiescence -- The martyrs of Cuncolim and other episodes of resistance -- The defence of the "genuine nobility" : conflicts of memory, identity, and power.
In 1951, the Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre made a short visit to Goa. This was part of a trip during which Freyre travelled through the Portuguese colonies in Africa and Asia to observe the results of the miscegenation process that, in his view, characterised Portuguese colonialism (Castelo 1998; Souza 2008; Bastos 2003; Cardão and Castelo 2015; Bastos 2015). During that visit, Freyre considered that Goan society was one of the best expressions of Lusotropicalism, of that benign Portuguese colonialism that adapted physically and culturally to tropical contexts, creating mixed societies (Freyre 1953). Ironically, five years later, the Portuguese geographer Orlando Ribeiro, who, among other Portuguese intellectuals, espoused Luso-tropicalist theories, had a different impression of the same territories and society, warning Salazar about the near absence of Lusophile feelings, and that the Portuguese presence in Goa was in danger (Ribeiro 1999). How can these different narratives be explained? Was Freyre mistaken? Or was Ribeiro too apocalyptic (which he was not, since in 1961, Goa was annexed by the Indian government)? ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
In this essay, I intend to demonstrate that the foundations of the attitudes of the Portuguese crown and its agents in relation to the native populations living in the imperial territories were mainly inspired by the relations in Portugal with Jews, and later, Conversos. Besides the strong influence of classical inspiration and a rereading of medieval travelers on the construction of the imperial territories, the ways of thinking about, identifying, and governing internal others served as a reference guide to interpret and model the social situations that emerged in the Portuguese imperial territories. Indeed, the establishment of analogies between the populations of the kingdom and imperial populations had a great practical impact, and molded a good part of the political solutions that were delineated initially as extra territorium, particularly those in the territory of Goa.
This article seeks to address the social and religious changes brought about in Goa during the first century of Portuguese conquest. It studies how the 'negative' effects of the Christian presence were overcome and transformed into an acceptable situation by the people involved in the process of Christianisation, and relates it to the durability of the Portuguese imperial presence. I argue that a careful study of the local society of two villages where conversion processes took place allows us to avoid easy answers and stereotypes about conversion, providing altogether more complex images of the Portuguese colonisation of Goa.
The history of agricultural, botanical, pharmacological, and medical exchanges is one of the most fascinating chapters in early modern natural history. Until recently, however, historiography has been dominated by the British experience from the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries, with Kew Gardens at the center of the "green imperialism." In this article we address the hard-won knowledge acquired by those who participated in early modern Portuguese imperial bioprospecting in Asia. The Portuguese were the first to transplant important economic plants from one continent to another, on their imposing colonial chessboard. In spite of this, the history of Portuguese bioprospecting is still fragmentary, especially with respect to India and the Indian Ocean. We argue not only that the Portuguese—imperial officials, missionaries, and the people connected with them, all living and working under the banner of the Portuguese empire—were interested in gathering knowledge but also that the results of their endeavors were relevant for the development of natural history in the early modern period and that they were important actors within the larger community of naturalists.
"The Iberian world played a key role in the global trade of enslaved people from the 15th century onwards. Scholars of Iberian forms of slavery face challenges accessing the subjectivity of the enslaved, given the scarcity of autobiographical sources. This book offers a compelling example of innovative methodologies that draw on alternative archives and documents, such as inquisitorial and trial records, to examine enslaved individuals' and collective subjectivities under Iberian political dominion. It explores themes such as race, gender, labour, social mobility and emancipation, religion, and politics, shedding light on the lived experiences of those enslaved in the Iberian world from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic. Contributors are: Sophia Blea Nuñez, Magdalena Candioti, Patricia Faria e Souza, James Fujitani, João José dos Reis, Michel Kabalan, Silvia Lara, Marta Macedo, Hebe Mattos, Michelle McKinley, Robson Pedroso Costa, Fernanda Pinheiro, Rômulo da Silva Ehalt, Lisa Surwillo, Miguel Valerio and Lisa Voigt"--
