The Colours of the Empire

Racialized Representations during Portuguese Colonialism

Patrícia Ferraz de Matos

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9780857457639
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Cultural & Social Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

The Portuguese Colonial Empire established its base in Africa in the fifteenth century and would not be dissolved until 1975. This book investigates how the different populations under Portuguese rule were represented within the context of the Colonial Empire by examining the relationship between these representations and the meanings attached to the notion of 'race'. Colour, for example, an apparently objective criterion of classification, became a synonym or near-synonym for 'race', a more abstract notion for which attempts were made to establish scientific credibility. Through her analysis of government documents, colonial propaganda materials and interviews, the author employs an anthropological perspective to examine how the existence of racist theories, originating in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, went on to inform the policy of the Estado Novo (Second Republic, 1933–1974) and the production of academic literature on 'race' in Portugal. This study provides insight into the relationship between the racist formulations disseminated in Portugal and the racist theories produced from the eighteenth century onward in Europe and beyond.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Tables and Illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Acronyms and Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter I — Origins of a Prejudice: The Roots of Racial Discrimination
• Chapter II — Discourse, Images, Knowledge: The Place of the Colonies and Their Populations in the Portuguese Colonial Empire
• Chapter III — Exhibiting the Empire, Imagining the Nation: Representations of the Colonies and the Overseas Portuguese in the Great Exhibitions
• Conclusion
• Appendix I — Film
• Appendix II — Texts from the padrões of Portugal dos Pequenitos
• Bibliography
• Index