Portuguese people

Portuguese people
Portugueses

1st row: Afonso I • St. Anthony • Álvares Pereira • Vasco da Gama 2nd row: Camões • Eça de Queiroz • José Barroso • José Saramago
Total population
c. 17,419,936[1]
Regions with significant populations
Portugal 11,317,192  Brazil 5,000,000[2]  United States 1,471,549  France 798,837  Venezuela 550,000  United Kingdom 500,000  Canada 415,000  South Africa 300,000  Switzerland 193,299[3]  Germany 170,000  Spain 126,651  Australia 56,000  Luxembourg 54,490  Mozambique 54,355  Guyana 50,000  Belgium 38,000  Angola 30,000[4] Rest of Europe 30,822 Asia 30,000 Rest of America 24,776 Rest of Africa 8,965
Languages
Portuguese
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholic
Related ethnic groups
Galicians and other Spaniards, other Western Europeans, other Portuguese speaking peoples

The Portuguese (Portuguese: os Portugueses) are an ethnic group or nation native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion.

Due to the large historical extent of the Portuguese Empire and the colonization of territories in Africa, Asia and the Americas, as well as historical and recent emigration, Portuguese communities can be found in many diverse regions, and a large Portuguese diaspora exists.

General traits

Modern Portuguese are an Iberian ethnic group and their ancestry is very similar to other western and southern European peoples, particularly from Spain, with whom it shares ancestry and has some 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 Atlantic and Western Europe as well as parts of the Mediterranean. Dark to medium brown hair and brown and hazel eyes predominate in a majority of Portuguese people; however, blond hair and blue or green eyes are also found with regular frequency. Chestnut and auburn-colored hair types occur generally. Light, true red hair (meaning red shades that are non-auburn) is seen on occasion.

Ancestry

Historical origins

The Portuguese are a southwestern European population, with origins predominantly from Atlantic Europe, Western Europe and the Mediterranean.

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.

Distribution of R1a (purple) and R1b (red). See also this map for distribution in Europe.

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 Irish, Welsh and Scottish gene-pool as well as parts of the English. Indeed, Y-chromosome haplogroup R1b (of Paleolithic origin) is the most common haplogroup in practically all of the Iberian peninsula and western Europe.^[5] 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 Portugal it reaches 33% generally and higher than 90% in some of the northern regions of the country.

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.^[6]

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.

Ethnographic and Linguistic Map of the Iberian Peninsula at about 200 BC.^[7]

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.^[8] 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 Phoenicians/Carthaginians (small semi-permanent commercial coastal establishments in the south before 200 BC), 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, permanently established in the early 5th century), along with, in the period of the Al-Andalus, numbers of Arabs and Berbers, Saqaliba (people of Slavic origin) and Jews who also settled in what is today Portuguese territory.

The ancestry of modern Portuguese has been influenced by the many people which have passed on its territory throughout history. Overall, these people include the Pre-Roman People of the Iberian Peninsula (such as the Lusitanians, Calaicians, Celtici, Cynetes and 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), Romans, Vandals, Suebi and Buri, Visigoths, Alans, Vikings, Saqaliba (Slavs), Moors (Berbers and, to a lesser extent, Arabs), and Jews (Sephardim or Marranos).

Most Berber/Arab people and the Jews were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula during the Reconquista, by the repression of the Inquisition and the repopulation by Christians.

During the Reconquista many crusaders settled in Portugal, settlers also came from Burgundy and Flanders, set in mainland Portugal and later in the Azores and Madeira (Descobrimentos).

For the Y-chromosome and MtDNA lineages of the Portuguese and other peoples see this map and this one.

Other historical influences

Genetic impact of the Moors in Iberia

There exists a number of studies which focus on the genetic impact of the eight centuries (less than six in Portugal) of Muslim influence in the Iberian peninsula (al-Andalus) on the genetic make up of the Iberian population. Recent studies show minor genetic relationships between some regions in Iberia and some North African populations as a result of this period of history. Iberia is the region in Europe which has the most significant presence of E-M81,^[9] U6 and Haplotype Va,^[10] although this influence may be the result of ancient demic processes that predate the Islamic presence,^[11] and may constitute the result of some common western Mediterranean population background. In Portugal, North Africans Y-DNA haplogroups (especially the typically North West African Y-chromosome haplotypes E-M81) are found at a total frequency of 7.1 %.^[12] Some mtDNA studies also found evidence of the characteristic North African haplogroup U6 especially in northern Portugal.^[13][14] Although the absolute frequency of U6 is low (4-6%), Gonzalez et al. 2003 estimated a possible North African ancestry proportion of 27% in North Portugal, because U6 is not a common lineage in North Africa itself.^[13]

According to some studies, the North African and Arab element in modern day Iberian ancestry is exceedingly trivial when compared to the pre-Islamic ancestral basis, and the Gibraltar Strait seems to have functioned much more as a genetic barrier than a bridge.^[6][15][16]. However, one study using different genetic markers reached different conclusions. In an autosomal study by Spínola et al. 2005 that analysed the HLA genes (inherited from all ancestors instead of the paternal or maternal direct lineages) in hundred of individuals in Portugal showed that the Portuguese population has been genetically influenced by other Europeans and North Africans, via several ancient historic immigrations. According to the authors, North and South Portugal show more similarity (although the level is trivial) to North Africans in opposition to Centre which appears closer to other Europeans due to the fact that North Portugal seems to concentrate, probably due to the pressure of Arab expansion, an ancient genetic pool originated from several North Africans and other Europeans, influences throughout millenniums while South Portugal shows a North African genetic influence, probably of recent origin by means of Berbers accompanying Arab expansion.^[17].

Middle-Eastern genetic markers in Iberia

According to a recent study that was published in the American Journal of Human Genetics in December 2008 by Adams et al., about 30 percent of modern Portuguese (23.6 in the north and 36.3 in the south) have DNA reflecting what can be a male Sephardic Jewish ancestry and about 14 % (11.8 in the north and 16.1% in the south) have a probable Moorish ancestry.^[18] Despite alternative possible sources for lineages ascribed a Sephardic Jewish origin, these proportions attest to a high level of religious conversion (whether voluntary or enforced), driven by historical episodes of social and religious intolerance, that ultimately led to the integration of descendants. In agreement with the historical record, analysis of haplotype sharing and diversity within specific haplogroups suggests that the Sephardic Jewish component is more ancient than the Moorish one.^[18]

Sub-Saharan genetic markers in Iberia

Portugal is also the region in Europe with the highest frequency of the female mediated mtDNA haplogroup L of Sub-Saharan origin. In 2003, a study by Brehm at al. which analysed 525 Portuguese individuals reported mtDNA L haplogroups at 11.8% in the south, 8.1% in the center, 3.3% in the north and also found a significant Sub-Saharan imprint in the Autonomous regions of Portugal, with L haplogroups constituting about 13% of the lineages in Madeira and 3.4 % in the Azores^[19] In a 2005 study by Pereira et al. that analysed 549 Portuguese individuals, sub-Saharan mtDNA L haplogroups were found at rates of 11.38% in the south, 5.02% in the center and 3.21% in the north.^[14] A more a recent study by Beleza et al. (2005-2006) recorded only 0.3% Sub-Saharan Y-DNA frequencies in a nationwide sampling of nearly 700 participants. Autosomal research by Auton et al. (2009) covering a wide range of European populations shows practically no Sub-Saharan markers in the Portuguese population.

Demography

Demographics of Portugal

There are around 10.2 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 Mirandese language, close to Leonese 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.^[20] More recently, a great number of Slavs, especially Ukrainians (now the third biggest ethnic minority ^[21]), are also migrating to Portugal. There is also a small Chinese minority.

In addition, there is a small minority of Gypsies (Ciganos) of about 40,000 people^[22] and an even smaller minority of Jews of about 5,000 persons (some Ashkenazi, the majority Sephardi, such as the Belmonte Jews).

The Portuguese diaspora

In the whole world there are easily more than one hundred million people with recognizable Portuguese ancestors, due to the colonial expansion and worldwide 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.^[30] 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.^[31] About 40 million Brazilians have relatively recent Portuguese background, due to massive immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. About 1.2 million Brazilian citizens are native Portuguese.^[32] Significant verified Portuguese minorities exist in^[33]: (see table)

Portuguese Sephardic Jews (mostly descendants) are also important in Israel, the Netherlands, the United States, France, Venezuela, Brazil^[34] 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 (See Portuguese Argentine) and Uruguay had Portuguese immigration in the early 20th century. Portuguese fishermen, farmers and laborers dispersed across the Caribbean, especially Bermuda (3.75%^[27] to 10%^[35] of the population), Guyana (4.3% of the population in 1891)^[36], Trinidad^[37] and the island of Barbados where there is high influence from the Portuguese community.^[38]

In the early twentieth century the Portuguese government encouraged white emigration to Angola and Mozambique, and by the 1970s, there were up to 1 million Portuguese settlers living in their overseas African provinces.^[39] An estimated 800,000 Portuguese returned to Portugal as the country's African possessions gained independence in 1975, after the Carnation Revolution, while others moved to Brazil and south to South Africa.^[40]

As of 1989, some 4,000,000 Portuguese were living abroad, mainly in France, Germany, Brazil, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Canada, Venezuela, and the United States.^[41]

Portuguese constitute 13% of the population of Luxembourg. In 2006 there were estimates to be over half a million people of Portuguese origin in the United Kingdom (see Portuguese in the United Kingdom), this is considerably larger than the around 50,000 Portuguese born people alone residing in the country in 2001 (however this figure doesn't include British born people of Portuguese descent). In areas such as Thetford and the crown dependencies of Jersey and Guernsey, the Portuguese form the largest ethnic minority groups at 30% of the population, 20% and 3% respectively. The British capital London is home to the largest number of Portuguese people in the UK, with the majority being found in Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth and Westminster.^[23]

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, Singapore and Indonesia (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).

Portuguese ancestry in the Brazilian population

The Portuguese were the largest European immigrant population in Brazil. In colonial times, around 500,000 Portuguese settled in Brazil.^[42] They managed to be the only significant European population to populate the country during colonization. The Portuguese immigration was strongly marked by the predominance of men (colonial reports from the 16th and 17th centuries almost always report the absence or rarity of Portuguese women). The multiplication of descendants of Portuguese settlers happened through miscegenation with Black and Indian women. In fact, in colonial Brazil the Portuguese men competed for the women, because even among the African slaves the female component was a minority.^[42] This explains why the Portuguese men left more descendants in Brazil than the Amerindian or African men did. The Indian and African women were "dominated" by the Portuguese men, preventing men of color to find partners with whom they could have children. Added to this, the "White" people had a better quality of life and therefore a lower mortality rate than the Black and indigenous population. Then, even though the Portuguese immigration during colonial Brazil was small (5 million Indians estimated at the beginning of colonization and 3 to 6 million Africans brought since then, compared to 500,000 Portuguese) the "White" population (which was mostly mixed) was as large as the Black population in the early 19th century.^[42]

After independence from Portugal in 1822, around 1.7 million Portuguese settled in Brazil.^[42] Portuguese immigration to Brazil in the 19th and 20th centuries was marked by its concentration in the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The immigrants went mostly to urban centers (which made them different from other immigrants in Brazil, who were attracted to rural areas of the country). Portuguese women appeared with some regularity among immigrants, with percentage variation in different decades and regions of the country. However, even among the more recent influx of Portuguese immigrants in the turn of the 19th century, there was a prevalence of 80% of men among them.^[43] The Portuguese were different from other immigrants in Brazil, like the Germans,^[44] or Italians ^[45] who brought many women along with them (even though the proportion of men was higher in any immigrant community). Despite the small female proportion, Portuguese men married mainly Portuguese women. Female immigrants rarely married Brazilian men. In this context, the Portuguese had a rate of endogamy which was higher than any other European immigrant community, and behind only the Japanese among all immigrants.^[46]

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 British Americans in the United States who 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.^[47]

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.^[48][49]

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.^[50]

It was estimated that around 5 million Brazilians can acquire Portuguese citizenship, due to the last Portuguese nationality law that grants citizenship to grandchildren of Portuguese nationals.^[51]

See also

• Genetic history of Europe
• European ethnic groups
• Romance languages
• Portuguese Africans
  • Portuguese Angolans
  • Portuguese Mozambicans
  • Portuguese-South Africans
• Portuguese-Brazilians
• Portuguese Luxembourger
• Portuguese of Black African ancestry
• Portuguese British
• Portuguese Americans
• Portuguese Canadians

Portuguese diaspora Africa Angola · Mozambique · South Africa Americas Brazil · Canada · Guyana · United States · Venezuela Asia Macau · Malaysia · Sri Lanka Europe Luxembourg · Netherlands  · United Kingdom Oceania Australia

References

External links

• Detailed map of the Pre-Roman Peoples of Iberia (around 200 BC)
• Wikimedia Atlas of Portugal
• Portugal (Emigration) from CIA Country Studies Series