Performed in every part of the early modern Portuguese empire that extended across four continents, public rituals (e.g. festivals, entries, funerals, processions) represent a key site for comparing cultural and political practices in different areas and for studying their transmission and transformation on a global scale. This conference aims to address the spatial and geographic dimensions of public rituals and to encourage dialogue between History and a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including the possibilities afforded by GIS (Geographic Information Systems) or other digital humanities tools.
The conference is part of the “Public Rituals in the Portuguese Empire (1498-1822)” research project (www.rituaispublicos.wordpress.com), which is engaged in digitizing ritual and festival-related texts held at the National Library of Portugal and National Library of Ajuda, and aims to build a GIS platform to map, visualize, and study them.

We encourage papers that compare public rituals in different parts of the Portuguese empire, as well as ones that identify patterns of cultural exchange with African, Amerindian, and Asian societies or with other European and non-European imperial actors.

The working languages of the conference are Portuguese, English and Spanish.
Paper abstracts up to 200 words and a brief 1-page CV should be sent to publicrituals@gmail.com by February 15, 2020.

https://rituaispublicos.wordpress.com