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- Convenors:
-
Sidh Losa Mendiratta
(Universidade Lusófona do Porto)
Alice Santiago Faria (CHAM-NOVA FCSH-UAc)
- Location:
- Sala 44, Piso 1
- Sessions:
- Thursday 18 July, -
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
Short Abstract:
This panel proposes to address the ways and mindsets through which the old city of Goa was perceived and portrayed - from the the early 1600s to the last years of portuguese colonial rule - focusing on the history of its urban culture and built landscape.
Long Abstract:
There is an obvious and striking connection between the expansion, stagnation, and slow and agonizing decline of the Estado da Índia and the history of its capital city, Old Goa. Indeed, the process through which the old city of Goa grew, shrank and slowly receded back into its rural
backdrop is usually considered in light of the steady decline in trade and political stealth of the Estado da Índia, together with a general corruption of morals and public health. However, it is known - or at least strongly suspected - that many other factors were at play during the abandonment and dismantling process(es) of Old
Goa, such as social tensions between "reinóis" and "descendentes" and the Goan catholics elite, a faction that rose from an arguably subaltern position to the higher ranks of colonial society. At any rate, the stages of development, decline and demise of Old Goa are presente in a wide array of documents, especially written material and images. This panel proposes to address the diversities of ways and mindsets in witch the old city of Goa was perceived and portrayed - from the candid descriptions of Silva y Figueroa in the early 1600s to the redeveloping ideas of the Gracias Committe during the last years of colonial rule - focusing on the history of its urban culture and built landscape.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 18 July, 2013, -Vera Mariz (Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa)
Paper short abstract:
In 1951 Mário Chicó led a group of experts whose mission was to study and disclose the Portuguese monuments built in the Estado da Índia. With this paper we aim to analyse the perception of the Portuguese monuments of the Old City of Goa that, at the time, were poorly known.
Paper long abstract:
In the first half of the20th century the specificities of the Portuguese monuments built in the Old City of Goa were barely known. In fact, the situation was particularly remarkable if we consider the attention given, during the same period of time, to the Luso-Brazilian Baroque.
Given this situation, in 1951, Mário Tavares Chicó suggested to the Ministry of Overseas the creation of a study brigade whose mission was to identify, register through drawings and photographs, exhibit and organize an archive with all the results obtain in the Old City of Goa.
Thus, Mário Chicó along with Martinho Humberto dos Reis, Carlos de Azevedo and Mário Novais planned the trip that would be held during three months in the Portuguese India and, mainly, in the Old City of Goa.
Therefore, with this paper, we pretend to understand how (and why) little the Portuguese monuments of the Old City of Goa were known in 1951 and, subsequently, analyse the program developed by the Study Brigade for the Portuguese Monuments in India.
Finally, by assay the perception of this specific brigade regarding the former capital of the Portuguese India and the results of the 1951's mission, we pretend to identify the benefits that arise from this situation of a very fragile and incomplete knowledge of the Portuguese monuments built in that colonial territory.
Luísa Barbosa Cardoso (CES-Centro de Estudos Sociais/ III-Instituto de Investigação Interdisciplinar da UC)
Paper short abstract:
The present essay focuses in the report of four European travelers, about what they saw, observed and narrated of a stay in Goa.
Paper long abstract:
The present essay focuses in the report of four European travelers: D. Garcia de Silva Y Figueroa (1550/1624) - Spanish, Jan Huygen van Linschoten (1563/1611) - Dutch, François Pyrard de Laval (1578/1623) - French and Piettro Della Valle (1586/1623) - Italian, about what they saw, observed and narrated of a stay in Goa.
Despite a common starting point they had different criteria for analysis, comparison and objectives, although converging in some geographic points, on a mission that consists in analyzing and identifying the ways, habits and uses that Portuguese had absorbed and imposed in their territorial appropriation of India. The report also reflects the detailed geography of the places revealing detailed descriptions of physical and human characterization of the Goa territory.
They all traveled in the dual monarchy period, where a dynasty - the Habsburgs - intended to assume a universal sovereignty that was characterized for embracing the four parts of the world.
Also in this period, Netherlands, France, Spain, France and others reportedly taken by sea and land their interest in the East, which consequently resulted in the formation of numerous commercial companies and led to the loss of the Portuguese hegemony in the field of trade routes, helping to accentuate the decline that have been manifested since the mid-sixteenth century, of the Portuguese State of India.
The analysis reflects the way how these travelers, differently and critically, revealed and describe the geography of the territory of the island and city of Goa, not forgetting their distinct motivation, education and origin.
Ana Paula Avelar (Aberta University)
Paper short abstract:
In our paper we aim to show the way Goa is depicted in 16th century accounts of the Portuguese empire. Our main focus are Portuguese Expansion chronicles, which eventually allow us to understand Global History discursive strategies.
Paper long abstract:
Our analysis will focus Portuguese 16th Expansion chronicles in order to unveil the way their authors conceived Expansion General Histories, and, eventually, their sources. We shall confront the way Goa, at the time center of the "Portuguese State of India", was described by the authors of both Regal and Expansion chronicles, while at the same time contextualize their different narrative perceptions. We shall compare João dos Barros' Asia..., Fernão Lopes de Castanheda's History of the Discovery and Conquest of India by the Portuguese, Gaspar Correia's Legends of India, and Damião de Góis', Francisco de Andrada's and Jerónimo Osório's Regal chronicles of king Manuel and of king João III, in order to ponder on the different strategic narratives about the empire, following a Global History analytic approach. Both physical and natural spaces, local history, and the dialogue with the Other(s), will be taken as descriptive indicators that we shall have in mind in order to reveal their historicity in "writing Goa in the Portuguese Empire in the 16th century through a Global perspective".