Everything about The Portuguese People totally explained
The
Portuguese people (; literally
the Portuguese) are the
ethnic group or
nation native to the country of
Portugal, in the west of the
Iberian peninsula of
south-
west Europe.
Portuguese is their native language and
Roman Catholicism is their predominant religion.
Ethnic composition of the Portuguese
Modern day Portuguese are an Iberian Peninsula ethnic group and their ancestry is very similar to other
western and
southern European peoples, particularly from the Iberian Peninsula, with whom it shares ancestry and has cultural proximity. It is largely consistent with the geographic position of the western part of the Iberian peninsula, located on the extreme southwest of continental Europe. There are clear connections with the
Mediterranean peoples as well as with those of
Atlantic and
Western Europe. Dark
brown hair and dark hazel and brown eyes predominate in a majority of Portuguese people, however
blond hair and blue or green
eyes are also found with some frequency.
Ancestry
The Portuguese are a southwestern
European population, predominantly
Mediterranean and
Atlantic European.
The earliest
modern humans inhabiting Portugal are believed to have been
Paleolithic peoples that may have arrived in the
Iberian Peninsula as early as 35,000-40,000 years ago. Current interpretation of
Y-chromosome and
mtDNA data suggests that modern-day Portuguese traces largely a significant amount of these lineages to the
paleolithic peoples which began arriving to the European continent between the end of the
last glaciation around 45,000 years ago.
Northern Iberia is believed to have been a major Ice-age refuge from which Paleolithic humans later colonized Europe. Migrations from what is now Northern Iberia during the Paleolithic and
Mesolithic, links modern
Iberians to the populations of much of
Western Europe and particularly the
British Isles and
Atlantic Europe. Recent books published by geneticists
Bryan Sykes,
Stephen Oppenheimer and
Spencer Wells have argued the large Paleolithic and Mesolithic Iberian influence in the modern day British gene-pool. Indeed, Y-chromosome
haplogroup R1b (of Paleolithic origin) is the most common haplogroup in practically all of the Iberian peninsula and western Europe. Within the R1b haplogroup there are modal
haplotypes. One of the best-characterized of these haplotypes is the
Atlantic Modal Haplotype (AMH). This haplotype reaches the highest frequencies in the Iberian Peninsula and in the British Isles. In Iberia it reaches 33% in Portugal.
The
Neolithic colonization of Europe from
Western Asia and the
Middle East beginning around 10,000 years ago reached Iberia, as most of the rest of the continent although, according to the
demic diffusion model, its impact was most in the southern and eastern regions of the European continent.
Starting in the
3rd millennium BC as well as in the
Bronze Age, the first wave of migrations into Iberia of speakers of
Indo-European languages occurred. These were later (
7th and
5th Centuries BC) followed by others that can be identified as
Celts.
Eventually urban cultures developed in southern Iberia, such as
Tartessos, influenced by the
Phoenician colonization of coastal
Mediterranean Iberia, with strong competition from the
Greek colonization.
These two processes defined Iberia's, and Portugal's, cultural landscape - Mediterranean towards the southeast and a Continental in the northwest, as historian José Mattoso describes it.
Given the origins from Paleolithic and Neolithic settlers as well as
Indo-European migrations, one can say that the Portuguese
ethnic origin is mainly a mixture of pre-Roman Pre-Indo-Europeans (such as, in other parts of Iberia, the
Iberians,
Tartessians and
Aquitanians), Pre-
Celtic, Proto-Celtic and Celtic peoples, producing peoples such as the
Lusitanians of
Lusitania, the
Calaicians or Gallaeci of
Gallaecia, the
Celtici and the
Cynetes of the
Alentejo and the
Algarve.
The
Romans were an important influence on
Portuguese culture, considering the
Portuguese language itself derives from
Latin.
Other influences included the
Greeks,
Phoenicians/
Carthaginians (small semi-permanent commercial coastal establishments in the south), the
Vandals (
Silingi and
Hasdingi) and the Sarmatian
Alans (both migrated to
North Africa, while some were partially integrated by the Visigoths and Suevi), and the
Visigoths and
Suevi (including the
Buri), along with minor numbers of
Arabs,
Berbers,
Saqaliba and
Jews who also settled in what is today
Portuguese territory.
For the
Y-chromosome and
MtDNA lineages of the Portuguese and other peoples see
this map
and
this one.
The legacy of Muslim rule
There exists a number of studies which focus on the genetic impact of the eight centuries of
Muslim rule in the Iberian peninsula (
al-Andalus) on the genetic make up of the Iberian population. Recent studies agree that there's some genetic relationship between Iberia (mainly far southern regions) and some
North African Populations as a result of this period of history, Iberia is the only region in Europe with a significant presence of the typically
North West African Y-chromosome haplotypes E-M81, and Haplotype Va, although this influence may be the result of ancient demic processes that predate the Islamic presence, and may constitute the result of some common western Mediterranean population background.
Iberia is also the region in Europe with the highest frequency of the female mediated mtDNA haplogroup L of
Sub-Saharan origin, as a result of
Berber colonization and, particularly on specific locations in the south, modern
African slavery.,
Nevertheless, the North African or just African element in modern day Iberians' ancestry is quite trivial when compared to the pre-Islamic ancestral basis
(External Link).
Historical groups and influences
The ancestry of modern Portuguese has been influenced by the many peoples which have passed on its territory throughout history. These peoples include the Pre-Indo-European peoples of Iberia,
Proto-Celts and
Celts (such as the
Lusitanians,
Calaicians,
Celtici,
Cynetes and other
Pre-Roman Peoples of the Iberian Peninsula, such as other minor local tribes as the
Bracari,
Coelerni,
Equaesi,
Grovii,
Interamici,
Leuni,
Luanqui,
Limici,
Narbasi,
Nemetati,
Paesuri,
Quaquerni,
Seurbi,
Tamagani,
Tapoli,
Turduli,
Turduli Veteres,
Turdulorum Oppida,
Turodi and
Zoelae),
Phoenicians (
Punics),
Greeks,
Carthaginians,
Romans,
Vandals,
Suebi,
Visigoths,
Alans,
Buri,
Byzantines,
Saqaliba (
Slavs),
Berbers and
Arabs (
Moors),
Jews (
Sephardim or
Marranos).
Demography
There are around 10 million native Portuguese in Portugal, out of a total population of 10.75 million (estimate).
Native minority languages in Portugal
A small minority of about 15,000 speak the
Astur-Leonese Mirandese language in the
municipalities of
Miranda do Douro,
Vimioso and
Mogadouro - even if all of the speakers are bilingual with
Portuguese.
An even smaller minority of no more than 2,000 people speak
Barranquenho, a dialect of Portuguese heavily influenced by
Extremaduran, spoken in the Portuguese town of
Barrancos (in the border between
Extremadura and
Andalusia, in
Spain, and Portugal).
Ethnic minorities in Portugal
People from the former
colonies (namely
Brazil,
Africa -
Afro-Portuguese, and parts of
India) have, in the last two to three decades, migrated to Portugal. More recently, a great number of
Slavs, especially
Ukrainians (now the biggest
ethnic minority), are also migrating to Portugal. There is also a small
Chinese minority.
There is also a small minority of
Gypsies (
Ciganos) of about 40,000 people and an even smaller minority of
Jews of about 5,000 persons (some
Ashkenazi, the majority
Sephardi, such as the
Belmonte Jews).
Minorities of Portuguese descent
In the whole world there are easily more than one hundred million people with recognizable Portuguese ancestors, due to the
colonial expansion and world-wide
immigration of Portuguese from the
16th century onwards to India, the Americas, Macau and East-Timor, Malaysia, Indonesia and Africa. Between 1886 and 1966, Portugal lost to emigration more than any West European country except
Ireland. From the middle of the
19th century to the late 1950s, nearly two million Portuguese left Europe to live in
Brazil and the
United States. About 35 million
Brazilians have recent Portuguese background, due to massive immigration in the late
19th and early
20th centuries. Significant verified Portuguese minorities exist in: (see table)
Portuguese
Sephardic Jews (mostly descendants) are also important in
Israel, the
Netherlands, the
United States,
France,
Venezuela,
Brazil and
Turkey.
In the
United States, there are Portuguese communities in
New Jersey, the New England states, and
California. In the Pacific,
Hawaii has a sizable Portuguese element that goes back 150 years (see
Portuguese Americans and
Luso Americans).
Canada, particularly
Ontario,
Quebec and
British Columbia, has developed a significant Portuguese community since 1940 (see
Portuguese Canadians).
Argentina and
Uruguay had Portuguese immigration in the early 20th century. Portuguese fishermen dispersed across the
Caribbean islands, especially
Bermuda and the island of
Barbados where there's high influence from the Portuguese community.
In the early twentieth century the Portuguese government encouraged European emigration to
Angola and
Mozambique, and by the 1970s there were up to 1 million Portuguese settlers living in their overseas African provinces. An estimated 800,000 Portuguese returned to Portugal as the country's African possessions gained independence in the 1975, while others moved to
Brazil and south to
South Africa, which now has the largest Portuguese population in Africa.
As of 1989, some 4,000,000 Portuguese were living abroad, mainly in France, Germany, Brazil, South Africa, Canada, Venezuela, and the United States.
As a result of interracial marriage and cultural influence, there are Portuguese influenced people with their own culture and Portuguese based dialects in parts of the world other than former Portuguese colonies, most notably in
Malaysia and
Singapore (see
Kristang people),
Barbados,
Aruba,
Curaçao,
Trinidad and Tobago,
Guyana (see
Portuguese immigrants in Guyana),
Equatorial Guinea and
Sri Lanka (see
Burgher people and
Portuguese Burghers).
How many Brazilians have Portuguese ancestry?
There are no exact figures about the number of
Brazilians of Portuguese descent, as the Portuguese
immigration to Brazil is as old a phenomenon as the country's colonization and happened in different immigration waves during the last centuries (see
Portuguese-Brazilian and
White Latin American).
Portuguese immigration to Brazil from the beginning of colonization, in 1500, until present day in 1990
Source: Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE) |
| |
Decade |
| Nationality |
1500-1700 |
1701-1760 |
1808-1817 |
1827-1829 |
1837-1841 |
1856-1857 |
1881-1900 |
1901-1930 |
1931-1950 |
1951-1960 |
1961-1967 |
1981-1991 |
| Portuguese |
100,000 |
600,000 |
24,000 |
2,004 |
629 |
16,108 |
316,204 |
754,147 |
148,699 |
235,635 |
54,767 |
4,605 |
Even with Portuguese heritage, many Portuguese-Brazilians identify themselves as being simply Brazilians, since Portuguese culture was a dominant cultural influence in the formation of Brazil (like many
Americans which though of
British ancestry will never describe themselves as of British extraction, but only as "Americans").
In
1872, there were 3.7 million
Whites in Brazil (the vast majority of them of Portuguese ancestry), 4.1 million
mixed-race people (mostly of Portuguese-
African-
Native American ancestry) and 1.9 million
Blacks. These numbers give the percentage of 80% of people with total or partial Portuguese ancestry in Brazil in the 1870s.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a new large wave of immigrants from Portugal arrived. From 1881 to 1991, over 1.5 million Portuguese immigrated to Brazil. In 1906, for example, there were 133,393 Portuguese-born people living in
Rio de Janeiro, comprising 16% of the city's population. Rio is, still today, considered the largest "Portuguese city" outside of Portugal itself.
Genetic studies also confirm the strong Portuguese racial influence in Brazilians. According to a study, at least half of the Brazilian population's
Y Chromosome comes from Portugal.
Black Brazilians have an average of 48% non-African genes, most of them may come from Portuguese ancestors.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Portuguese People'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://portuguese_people.totallyexplained.com">Portuguese people Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
