Colloquium Launch of the book Portugal Imaterial – Uma Abordagem Antropológica

This work aims to contribute to a deeper understanding and more effective action regarding the safeguarding and appreciation of Portuguese Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Portugal Imaterial, in addition to paying tribute to all those who embody the different intangible cultural expressions in our country, seeks to offer an encounter with memories, meanings, knowledge, and symbolisations, bringing readers closer to the traditional sounds, images, textures, smells and flavours that have shaped the national territory. The symbolic world: acts, objects and creations as carriers of cultural specificity.

From ancestry to contemporaneity, continuities and transformations. Manifestations of an intangible living heritage that have reached the present day and deserve to be better appreciated, preserved and promoted, as they represent the active presence of Portugal’s unique cultural identity.

In this anthropological approach, the various themes (complemented by extensive historical and documentary imagery) not only aim to support a general understanding of intangible heritage—regardless of the place or time in which it manifests—but also seek to address the current gap in available bibliography.

The book contains 351 pages and more than 200 ethnographic and historical-documentary images, among other materials.

The session will also feature contributions from Professor Manuel Damásio (Chairman of the Board of Lusófona University), Professor António Costa Pinto (Director of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Education and Administration at Lusófona University), and Professor Paulo Mendes Pinto (Director of Lusófona University Press).