Siglas poveiras
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The siglas poveiras also known as marcas (marks) are considered a proto-writing system because they are a very rudimentary visual communication system used by the local community of Póvoa de Varzim in Portugal throughout the centuries. To write these symbols, normally a razor on wood was used, but sometimes were painted on boats and beach sheds.
The siglas were used until very recently. These runes were used as family coat-of-arms or signature, primarily to mark family belongings.
In the past, the siglas were also used to remember things, and they have been known as Póvoa's "writing system", they did not form an alphabet, but rather had similar use as hieroglifs. Used because many residents did not knew how to write in the Latin alphabet, siglas thus acquired great utility.
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[edit] Types of Siglas Poveiras
Lixa Filgueiras argues that there are two types of symbols, distinguished by use: the marcas (marks) and siglas. The marks would serve as an ownership register, being consequently sufficiently common, and the siglas had magical-religious concerns.[1] The symbols of mythical character were rarer, both in ancient and newer siglas.
| Reference box for the types of siglas used in fishermen marks compared to the marks on the doors in the chapels of Balasar and Santa Tecla | |||
| Type | Póvoa de Varzim | Balasar | Santa Tecla |
|---|---|---|---|
| Religious Siglas | 18 | 11 | 11 |
| Magical Siglas | 5 | 6 | 4 |
| Maritime Siglas (total) | 47 | 23 | 20 |
| Boats or parts | 32 | 12 | 13 |
| Fishing | 5 | 8 | 4 |
| Penas | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| Pés de Galinha | 6 | 2 | 2 |
[edit] Family marks
Siglas poveiras were used as a family coat-of-arms since immemorial date by the community and with these symbols all of the home and fishing belongins were marked, that is, these are a property registry. The "marca-brasão" ("blazon-mark") of a family was known by all the Póvoa de Varzim’s community, children were recognized by counting of number of pique (similar to a trace) in their mark.
Thys system was useful. For instance, merchants used them in their books of credit, and the siglas were read as we today read a name written in the Latin alphabet. Currency values were symbolized by rings and traces, drawn after the mark of an individual.
According to a former port authority of Leixões, the Count of Vilas Boas, an individual stole a compass in Póvoa de Varzim and tried to sell it in Matosinhos, but he was unaware of that the recorded "drawings" in the cover indicated who was the owner. The first person to whom he tried to sell it was to a woman from Póvoa de Varzim. She recognized the mark immediately and its owner; with other fishermen, that had also recognized the mark, took the man, by force, to the port authority.
But it is on the tombs that the sigla-mark acquired personal significance, the sigla was carved in the tombstone specifying the person that was resting there.
[edit] Inheritance
The siglas are hereditary Coat-of-Arms, transmitted by inheritance from fathers to sons, these have symbolism and only the heirs can use them.
The siglas were not simply invented, but passed on through generations. The base family sigla was passed from the father to the youngest son — in Póvoa de Varzim’s tradition, the heir of the family is the younger son — to the other children was given the sigla with a trace (the pique). Thus, the older son would have one pique, the second two and so on, until the younger son that would have the original sigla, inheriting the same symbol as his father.
Analyses were made to check if families have actually used the same symbols through generations, due to some supposed inconsistencies in some families. It became apparent that the inconsistencies had historical or genealogical motivations, and that these symbols were inherited through generations and preserved as part of Póvoa's local traditions. Hundreds of different marks were studied leading to 84 different original families.
[edit] Magical-religious marks
[edit] Chapels in beaches and hills
Useful places for the study of Siglas Poveiras are the religious temples located not only in the city and its rural area, but also for all the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, especially in Minho region (in Portugal), but also in the Galicia (Spain).
The Poveiros, throughout generations, used to make inscriptions in the doors of chapels close to beaches or hills as a journey mark or as "promisses of caampaign" (promessas de campanha). That can be verified in Nossa Senhora da Bonança in Esposende's beach, and Santa Trega in La Guardia Hill, Spain. The mark would serve for the Poveiros that later saw it that one has passed there or for bringing fortune for oneself through the venerated saint of that place.
In September 23, 1991 a sculpture honouring Siglas Poveiras was inaugurated in the festival of Santa Trega in Northwestern Spain, as a mean to perpetuate the ancient and lost door of the Chapel of Santa Trega known to be covered with Siglas Poveiras. With the inauguration, an expedition aboard the Lancha Poveira Fé em Deus (Faith in God) came from Póvoa de Varzim, whose fishermen went up to the Trega and prayed in the chapel dedicated to the patron saint of the hill. The hills close to the coast, by being visible by the sea, have importance in the Poveiros sect traditions. Long ago, the fishing class went to this hill to pray to the saint in a ritual with chants attempting to change the winds so that they could return house.
Siglas, being used in the same way, can be found in the temples of Senhora da Abadia and São Bento da Porta Aberta, in Terras de Bouro, São Torcato, in Guimarães and Senhora da Guia, in Vila do Conde. In the municipality of Póvoa de Varzim, thse caan also be found in the Chapel of Santa Cruz in Balasar.
[edit] Divisas
The caught fish in a boat’s net belonged to its owner, whatever he is from the Lanchão or Sardinheiro castes. The fish were thus marked with the sigla and delivered to the women’s net owner. The fish marks are blows made in sigla in different parts of the fish.
The crew of each boat also had a sigla that was used by all the members of the crew, in case these start working in another boat, they would start to use the sigla of that boat. These boat marks were known as "divisas".
The divisas are true "arms shields", intended for the boat’s recognition; but, curiously, they were different from the boat’s owner mark. One should notice that all the Poveiro belongings were marked with his personal mark, except for the boat. This fact points that the boats were predominantly subject to magical-religious invocations, adopting a protecting-saint for the boat, thus earning mythical character, surrounded by protecting symbols.[1]
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A. Santos Graça, Epopeia dos Humildes, pag. 146
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English translation
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[edit] Marriage marks
The Poveiros wrote their sigla in the table of the mother church when they got married, as a way for memorializing the event. This usage of siglas can still be found in Igreja Matriz of Póvoa de Varzim (mother church since 1757) and in Igreja da Lapa.
A table in the old Church of Misericórdia that had the function of a mother church until 1757 kept thousands of siglas that would aid in a deeper study of the siglas poveiras, but these were destroyed when the church was demolished.
[edit] Origins
The siglas were first studied by António de Santos Graça in his book Epopeia dos Humildes ("The Odyssey of the Humble"). Published in 1952, the book contains hundreds of siglas and the history and maritime tragedy of Póvoa. Other of his works are "O Poveiro" (The Poveiro, 1932), "A Crença do Poveiro nas Almas Penadas" (The believe of the Poveiro in Dead Souls, 1933) e "Inscrições Tumulares por Siglas" (Tomb inscriptions using Siglas, 1942).
For Santos Graça, the siglas poveiras were related with the Castro peoples, and the author compared it and other dissimilar modern marks, found in other fishing communities, with the Iberian writing system. But, this thesis has no sufficient proofs. After a visit to the National Museet in Copenhagen, Octávio Lixa Filgueiras, by accident, found objects marked with "home-marks" from Funen in Denmark. Curiously, the complex hereditary mark system of Póvoa de Varzim was also found in Funen.
The Siglas development is at least, partly, attributed to Vikings that settled in the town around the 9th and 10th century and this form of primitive writing developed in the community of Póvoa de Varzim and kept due to pratice of endogamy. They are still very similar to a Scandinavian tradition of using specific bomärken ("homestead marks") for signatures and for marking property.
Each base sigla has a name, normally related with daily objects, but this sigla-object association seems to have occurred on a later time, both in Póvoa de Varzim as in the system studied in Funnen. The hourglass of Funnen was drawn in the same way as the chalice of Póvoa de Varzim.
Siglas were also compared to runes. In the 1960s, Lixa Filgueiras called for further studies. Comparing only identical Nordic runes:
pique - i-rune isaz (ice)
arpão (harpoon) - t-rune Tiwaz (Tyr)
meio-arpão (half-harpoon) l-rune laguz (lake)
cálix fechado (closed Chalice) - d-rune dagaz (day)
cruz (cross) g-rune gyfu (gift)
According to Santos Graça, the siglas were inspired by daaily objects of Póvoa de Varzim residents:
lanchinha — Poveiro Boat (port)
lanchinha — Poveiro Boat (nose)
mastro e verga — Barco Poveiro with hoisted sail
coice — Barco Poveiro (an area where women pushed for Ala-Arriba)
padrão — Cruzeiro of the Cemitery of Póvoa de Varzim
grades de dois e três piques — Gratings (Agricultural object used in the smoothing of the farmfields after harvest in Giesteira, Póvoa de Varzim)
sarilho and meio sarilho — Sarilho (object used by women to make hanks of wool or hemp in Póvoa de Varzim)
[edit] Current use of Siglas
The siglas are still used, but less often by some families.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Families (part one)
- Families (part two)
- Siglas Poveiras in Galicia (Spain)
- As Siglas Poveiras - Casa dos Poveiros, Rio de Janeiro (Brasil)
- Abreviaturas, Acrónimos & Siglas
