Portuguese people
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Portuguese
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| Total population |
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c. 56 million (183 million) (2005) |
| Regions with significant populations |
| Portugal: 10,000,000 (July 2006) Brazil: 35,000,000 - 80,0000[1] |
| Languages |
| Portuguese |
| Religions |
| Predominantly Roman Catholic |
| Related ethnic groups |
| Other Latin peoples, such as: Galicians, Spaniards, Italians, French and Romanians |
The Portuguese people (Portuguese: Povo Português) are the ethnic group or nation native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of southwest Europe. Portuguese is their native language and Roman Catholicism is their predominant religion.
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[edit] Ethnic composition
The Portuguese are a South-Western European population, predominantly Mediterranean and Atlantic European. Their ethnic origin is mainly a mixture of pre-Roman Celtic and Iberian tribes (called Celtiberians, such as the Lusitanians, the Calaicians or Gallaeci and the Cynetes or Conii, amongst other minor local tribes such as the Bracari, Celtici, Coelerni, Equaesi, Grovii, Interamici, Leuni, Luanqui, Limici, Narbasi, Nemetati, Paesuri, Quaquerni, Seurbi, Tamagani, Tapoli, Turduli, Turduli Veteres, Turdulorum Oppida, Turodi and Zoelae).
The Romans were another important influence, and considering the Portuguese language itself derives from Latin, it could be said they were the most important non-Lusitanian influence on Portuguese culture.
Minor 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 expelled or partially integrated by the Visigoths and Suevi), and the Visigoths and Suevi (including the Buri), who were integrated into Portuguese society, particularly amongst the aristocracy. Minor numbers of Arab-Berbers and Jews also settled in what is today Portuguese territory.
As with many European countries, there has been in Portugal a minor degree of admixture from other European nations, past and present, namely French, German, English, Scottish, Irish, Dutch and Flemish, Italian and Spanish. People from the former colonies (namely India, Africa and Brazil) 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.
Typically amongst Portuguese people, dark hair and brown eyes dominate, however lighter hair and eyes are also seen.
For the Y-chromosome and MtDNA lineages of the Portuguese and other peoples, see: [2] and [3]
There are around 10 million Portuguese in Portugal. About 35 million Brazilians have recent Portuguese background, due to massive immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the whole world there are, probably, more than a hundred million people with Portuguese blood, due to the world-wide immigration from the Portuguese in the 16th century in India, American continent and the Americas, Macau and East-Timor, Malaysia, Indonesia and Africa.
[edit] How many Brazilians have Portuguese ancestry?
There are no real numbers about the number of Brazilians of Portuguese descent, because the Portuguese immigration to Brazil is very old.
If we take the White population of Brazil in 1872 (3.7 million), almost all of them will be of Portuguese ancestry, since other Europeans (mostly Italians) only started to migrate to Brazil after the 1820's. The mulatto population (those of mixed Portuguese and African heritage) were 4 million, with a total of 7.7 million Brazilians of some Portuguese heritage in 1872.[4]
From 1870 until 1990, close to 1.5 million Portuguese migrated to Brazil[5], and nowadays their descendants are about 25 million people, as big as the Italo-Brazilian population.[6]
However, only 15% of Brazilians consider themselves to be of Portuguese heritage, so we can note that most Brazilians do not know about their Portuguese ancestry[7], or simply consider Portuguese ancestry as self-evident to their Brazilian identity, and prefer to emphasise non-Portuguese ancestors.
[edit] Minorities of Portuguese descent
Significant Portuguese minorities (and of Portuguese descent until the 3rd degree) exist in:
- Europe
- France (nearly 1 million)
- Luxembourg (over a third of the population)
- Germany
- Switzerland
- Belgium
- Andorra
- United Kingdom
- Africa
- South Africa (about 500,000)
- Angola
- Mozambique
- Cape Verde
- São Tomé and Príncipe
- Guinea-Bissau
- Namibia
- Asia and Oceania
- Macau (China)
- Australia
- India (mainly in Goa)
- East Timor
- Malaysia
- Sri Lanka
- United Arab Emirates
Portuguese Sephardic Jews (mostly descendants) are also important in Israel, the Netherlands, the United States, France, Brazil[citation needed] 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.
Canada, particularly Ontario and British Columbia, has developed a significant Portuguese community since 1940, while Chile and Uruguay had recent Portuguese immigration in the late 20th century. Portuguese fishermen dispersed across the Caribbean islands, especially Bermuda and the island of Barbados where there is high influence from the Portuguese community.
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, Barbados, Aruba, Curaçao, Guyana, Equatorial Guinea and Sri Lanka.
[edit] References
- Frost, Peter (2006), "European hair and eye color - A case of frequency-dependent sexual selection?", Evolution and Human Behavior, n.27, 85-103.
