The Government of Difference. Political imagination in the Portuguese empire (1496-1961)
The Government of Difference. Political imagination in the Portuguese empire (1496-1961)
This project examines how, between 1496 (royal decree that expelled the Jewish from the Portuguese kingdom) and 1961 (the abolishment of the Estatuto político, civil e criminal dos indígenas de Angola e Moçambique), the problems related with the government of the different populations of the Portuguese empire were discussed. The answers to these problems resulted in a set of proposals that have oscillated between inclusive and exclusive solutions. Despite the fact that they have changed throughout time and that some political projects aimed at dissolving the difference, these solutions always entailed forms of distinction between ‘colonizers' and ‘colonized'. Illustrations of these were the legal and political universalism associated with the conversion to Christianity or the political culture of Enlightenment, when the natural equality of mankind was defended and, consequently, the equality of political rights. A similar tension stays behind the idea of mission civilisatrice, which tried to recover the virtues of natural equality, entailing, at the same time, forms of delaying the attribution of the status of equal. From 19th century onwards, the emergent idea of race and the natural differences that derived from it challenged these trends, justifying the option for the Estatuto politico (...) dos indigenas, of 1926. After the 2nd World War, the racist faith and policies would be questioned by luso-tropicalism and the belief on the special ability of the Portuguese to mix with other populations. Some important questions lie behind this description of the long-term processes under analysis in this historical research, about which academic research has not yet provided satisfactory answers. The fact that the responses to these problems have left their traces in the Portuguese postcolonial society and in the postcolonial societies of former Portuguese colonies (Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Vert) makes the relevance of our proposal more explicit. That is why the planned outputs will contribute not only to historiography, but also to the research developed by other social scientists on contemporary political and social problems related with the imperial and colonial pasts. In relation to this, the axes of research will be: a) The ways how imperial discourses about difference and policies of inclusion and exclusion of extraterritorium populations intertwined overtime. First, we will identify the continuities and discontinuities in these forms of thinking the government of difference and the tensions between both. Then, we will discuss the tendency towards the dissolution of difference (related with the conversion to Christianity, to physical hybridity, to education), and of settling the political order upon a legal and political equality, in contradiction with the idea of fixing the difference as a foundation of this same political order. b) The connections between these ways of thinking and of shaping policies with the dominant imperial models (like the Roman), the political cultures of colonial societies and their agents, as well as singular events that had the power to change or to reinforce certain ideological trends. The sensibility to the circulation of ideas, either in transnational spaces or throughout time intends to make visible how past and contemporary experiences were entrenched in the shaping of empire, but also how imperial centres and peripheries were mutually constituted. c) The production and dissemination of the (sometimes tensional) collective memories about previous imperial populations, either among former colonizers or former colonized. \nIf to provide a longue durée panorama on these questions is behind this historical research, the team will concentrate, as well, in symptomatic case-studies and agents. This will permit to smell the aroma of the empire in practice. Since the axes of research are deeply related with the political and legal construction of the government of difference and the construction/dissemination of memories about these experiences, the research team will analyse four categories of sources, either in written or visual formats: legal texts, political debates, historiography and ritual ceremonies (see Plan and Methods). It should be noticed that the members of the research team have already studied different aspects of the problems and of the sources referred above (see CV's, Revision of Literature, Tasks), which means that parts of this research are already under way, a pre-condition for the successful termination of the present proposal. The team is also integrated by researchers coming from different scientific areas (History, Law, Anthropology), a fact that will favour an innovative interdisciplinary approach.
Empire; Politics; Memory; Ideologies
This project examines how, between 1496 (royal decree that expelled the Jewish from the Portuguese kingdom) and 1961 (the abolishment of the Estatuto político, civil e criminal dos indígenas de Angola e Moçambique), the problems related with the government of the different populations of the Portuguese empire were discussed. The answers to these problems resulted in a set of proposals that have oscillated between inclusive and exclusive solutions. Despite the fact that they have changed throughout time and that some political projects aimed at dissolving the difference, these solutions always entailed forms of distinction between ‘colonizers' and ‘colonized'. Illustrations of these were the legal and political universalism associated with the conversion to Christianity or the political culture of Enlightenment, when the natural equality of mankind was defended and, consequently, the equality of political rights. A similar tension stays behind the idea of mission civilisatrice, which tried to recover the virtues of natural equality, entailing, at the same time, forms of delaying the attribution of the status of equal. From 19th century onwards, the emergent idea of race and the natural differences that derived from it challenged these trends, justifying the option for the Estatuto politico (...) dos indigenas, of 1926. After the 2nd World War, the racist faith and policies would be questioned by luso-tropicalism and the belief on the special ability of the Portuguese to mix with other populations. Some important questions lie behind this description of the long-term processes under analysis in this historical research, about which academic research has not yet provided satisfactory answers. The fact that the responses to these problems have left their traces in the Portuguese postcolonial society and in the postcolonial societies of former Portuguese colonies (Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Vert) makes the relevance of our proposal more explicit. That is why the planned outputs will contribute not only to historiography, but also to the research developed by other social scientists on contemporary political and social problems related with the imperial and colonial pasts. In relation to this, the axes of research will be: a) The ways how imperial discourses about difference and policies of inclusion and exclusion of extraterritorium populations intertwined overtime. First, we will identify the continuities and discontinuities in these forms of thinking the government of difference and the tensions between both. Then, we will discuss the tendency towards the dissolution of difference (related with the conversion to Christianity, to physical hybridity, to education), and of settling the political order upon a legal and political equality, in contradiction with the idea of fixing the difference as a foundation of this same political order. b) The connections between these ways of thinking and of shaping policies with the dominant imperial models (like the Roman), the political cultures of colonial societies and their agents, as well as singular events that had the power to change or to reinforce certain ideological trends. The sensibility to the circulation of ideas, either in transnational spaces or throughout time intends to make visible how past and contemporary experiences were entrenched in the shaping of empire, but also how imperial centres and peripheries were mutually constituted. c) The production and dissemination of the (sometimes tensional) collective memories about previous imperial populations, either among former colonizers or former colonized. \nIf to provide a longue durée panorama on these questions is behind this historical research, the team will concentrate, as well, in symptomatic case-studies and agents. This will permit to smell the aroma of the empire in practice. Since the axes of research are deeply related with the political and legal construction of the government of difference and the construction/dissemination of memories about these experiences, the research team will analyse four categories of sources, either in written or visual formats: legal texts, political debates, historiography and ritual ceremonies (see Plan and Methods). It should be noticed that the members of the research team have already studied different aspects of the problems and of the sources referred above (see CV's, Revision of Literature, Tasks), which means that parts of this research are already under way, a pre-condition for the successful termination of the present proposal. The team is also integrated by researchers coming from different scientific areas (History, Law, Anthropology), a fact that will favour an innovative interdisciplinary approach.