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
Ancestry
Modern day Portuguese are an Iberian ethnic group and their ancestry is largely similar to other Iberian peoples. It is largely consistent with the geographic position of the Iberian peninsula, located on the extreme southwest of Europe. There are clear connections with the
Mediterranean peoples as well as with those of
Atlantic and
Western Europe. Dark brown hair and eyes predominate in the most of Portuguese people - a Mediterranean Caucasoid characteristic. However, blond hair and blue or green eyes are also found, particularly in the North, where Germanic and Celt presences are larger.
A Paleolithic and Neolithic basis of Iberian ancestry
Recent development of methodologies for defining population structure using genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism markers has led a 2006 study to conclude that there is clear and consistent division between ''“northern” and “southern” European population groups'', strongly suggesting a close genetic relationship between Greeks, Italians, Portuguese and Spaniards, whereas all European populations north of the Alps and the Pyrenees (except for Ashkenazi jews) seem to fall squarely into a separate "Northern" population group.
[1] However, a similar 2007 study found that the most prominent genetic stratifications in Europe run from the north to the south-east [northern Europe-Balkans], while there are other weaker stratifications such as east-west and north-south. This latter study concludes that Iberians cluster with other southern European populations while pointing to a strong Paleolithic element in the Iberian gene-pool, suggesting that the region holds the most ancient European ancestry.
[2]
Indeed, the Paleolithic component in Iberian ancestry had already been ascertained by means of Y-chromosome and mtDNA analysis, a methodology which does not provide strong inferences on genetic population structure but is useful in tracing parts of the routes of migration in the populating of Europe. Both Y-chromosome haplogroups
R1b and Mtdna haplogroup H, reach frequencies above 50% in most of
Iberia, R1b peaking at 90% in the Basque region. This shows the strong ancestral bond between Iberia and the rest of western Europe. It is thought that Northern Iberia was an Ice Age refuge at the end of the last glaciation 45,000 years ago from which human beings later colonized the rest of western Europe.
[3] Mtdna analysis also points to some pre-historic population movements into Iberia from North Africa, probably during the Capsian diffusion
[2]. However a recent and thorough study revealed that the North-African Berber immigrants ''constituted a long-lasting and continuous community'' not limited to Capsian or Moorish expansion
[4].
Autosomal studies using a small number of classical genetic markers, supported by more recent analysis of Microsatellite data, have not only lent support for a large Neolithic element in the European genome, but have also been the basis for the
demic diffusion model from the near east. Broad gradients across Europe, largely on a South East/North West cline using a small number of classical genetic markers would thus link the populations of Western Europe (including Iberia) by a common "paleolithic" ancestry and those of eastern (and particularly south eastern) Europe by a common "neolithic" ancestry
[5]
Nevertheless the demic diffusion model remains controversial, to the degree that studies of ancient Mtdna point to the total absence of Neolithic contribution to modern European populations.
The Atlantic
Experts such as
Barry Cunliffe,
Bryan Sykes and
Stephen Oppenheimer have put forward theories, supported by genetic and archaeological studies, pointing to Iberia as the main origin of the people that re-populated
Atlantic Europe in the post-glacial period, during the Paleolithic and the Neolithic times. They argue that the evidence shows that this prehistoric genetic source remains the predominant one in the region.
The genetic 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 is a genetic relationship between (particularly southern) Iberia and
North Africa 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
[6],
[7] and Haplotype Va
[8] 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 colonisation and, particularly in Southern Portugal,
African slavery.
[9],
[10]
Nevertheless, the North African element in modern day Iberians' ancestry is minor when compared to the pre-Islamic ancestral basis
[3].
However the most recent and thorough study about Y-chromosome Lineages from Portugal revealed ''The mtDNA and Y data indicate that the Berber presence in that region dates prior to the Moorish expansion in 711 AD [...] Our data indicates that male Berbers, unlike sub-Saharan immigrants, constituted a long-lasting and continuous community in the country''
[4].
Other Historical 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
Iberians,
Celts (
Celtiberians),
Phoenicians (
Punics),
Greeks,
Carthaginians,
Romans,
Vandals,
Suebi,
Visigoths,
Alans,
Buri,
Byzantines,
Berbers and
Arabs (
Moors),
Jews (
Sephardim or
Marranos).
Portugal was a recipient of immigration from Portuguese settlers who returned from the former Colonies in Africa (Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bisseau and Cape Verde), in the seventies. Recently, there has been a large surge in immigration from Eastern Europe.
Demography
Main articles: Demographics of Portugal
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, 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 of about 25,000 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. About 35 million
Brazilians have recent Portuguese background, due to massive immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Significant Portuguese minorities (and of Portuguese descent until the 3rd degree) exist in:
Portuguese
Sephardic Jews (mostly descendants) are also important in
Israel, the
Netherlands, the
United States,
France,
Brazil[12] 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 is 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 around 650,000 Portuguese settlers living in their overseas African provinces. Many Portuguese returned to Portugal as the country's African possessions gained independence in the 1975, while others moved south to
South Africa, which now has the largest Portuguese population in Africa.
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,
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 succeded 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 |
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 migrate to Brazil in large numbers after the 1870'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
[13].
From 1870 until 1990, close to 1.5 million Portuguese migrated to Brazil
[14], and nowadays their descendants are about 30 million people, as big as the
Italo-Brazilian population which is about 25 million people
[15].
However, only 15% of Brazilians consider themselves to be of Portuguese heritage, so we can note that most Brazilians either do not take distant ancestral links into consideration when discussing their heritage, simply consider Portuguese ancestry as self-evident to their Brazilian identity or prefer to emphasise non-Portuguese ancestors.
Brazilians with unmixed Portuguese ancestry are therefore a minority, yet comparable to
Italian-Brazilians in number.
References
1.
European Population Substructure: Clustering of Northern and Southern Populations
2. Measuring European Population Stratification using Microarray Genotype Data [1]
3. Summarized Percent Frequencies of R1b, R1a, I1b
★ (xM26), E3b1 and J2e
4. Y-chromosome Lineages from Portugal, Madeira and Açores Record Elements of Sephardim and Berber Ancestry
5. [www.mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/21/7/1361/T03]
6.
Phylogeny and frequency distributions of Hg E and its main subclades
7.
Origin, Diffusion, and Differentiation of Y-Chromosome Haplogroups E and J
8.
North African Berber and Arab influences in the western Mediterranean revealed by Y-chromosome DNA haplotypes.
9. According to a summary study by Pereira et al. 2005, sub-Saharan mtDNA L haplogroups were found at rates of 0.62% in a German-Danish sample, 1% in the British, 3.83% in Iberians (Portuguese and Spanish), 2.38% in Albanians, 2.86% in Sardinians and 0.94% in Sicilians
Sub-Saharan DNA admixture in Europe
10.
African female heritage in Iberia: a reassessment of mtDNA lineage distribution in present times
11. Y-chromosome Lineages from Portugal, Madeira and Açores Record Elements of Sephardim and Berber Ancestry
12. Portuguese Jews in Brazil - in Portuguese
13. Evolution of Brazilian population according to colour - 1872/1991; in Portuguese
14. Portuguese immigrants in Brazil - in Portuguese
15. Number of Italo-Brazilians - in Portuguese
See also
★
Genetic history of Europe
★
Portuguese-Brazilian
External links
★
Detailed map of the Pre-Roman Peoples of Iberia (around 200 BC)
★
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