The shield protectors for rain, cold, heat and dry: shelters for
people, cattle and food in 19th century
Cristina
Joanaz de Melo, IHC-FCSH, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Drought as floods disables animals and human survival.
The burning sun elevates shadow and covering to precious resources. Hailstorms
and the roar of thunders suggestively make one desire for protection. Thus,
extreme weather conditions call for sheltering.
Hardly fitting in our pattern of annual seasons, weather is
unpredictable.
So far, literature attributes shepherds sheltering in
the lowlands as in the uplands to the tradition of transhumance from winter to
summer pastures. However in Serra do
Gerês in the north of Portugal, many of this shelters have only
500m of difference in altitude.
However in nowadays, in the Portuguese province of
Beira Baixa, in the area of the International Tagus, Vilha Velha do Ródão we
can find a track of shelters made of
stones, similar to igloos made with rocks, in
. They are known in the region as
“shepherds shelters”. Both in the valleys, as at 650meters of altitude, and higher up towards
the direction of Guarda, between 1000meters and 1500 meters of altitude. Those
igloos and other constructions made of
stones, timber or mud, inside of
which fire can be lighted on in
areas had been built in areas always
with fewer vegetation and more windy.
Considering that life conditions would be easier in
lower altitudes, one might wonder, why have these shelters been built so high?
The intriguing question was about knowing what had motivated constructions in
the high as well as their ulterior abandonment. In summer that location would
not bring much shadow or water for the flocks, and over winter, weather
conditions would be too sharp. Therefore, those structures might have been
built under specific conditions, namely in the period of rain fall increase in
the 19th century.
Throughout the 1800s, there was a profound increase of
rain values for all over Europe. In Portugal as in France or Switzerland the
decade of 1850s was known by the occurrence of the biggest torrential floods of
the century. Thus, it might have happened some correspondence between the time
of sheltering constructions higher in the slopes, rainfall increase and the
need to avoid the altitude in the mountains, were steams were becoming dragging
waters.
In order to overcome weather conditions and not being
able to run their flocks in the occupied lowlands, shepherds had to develop
some kind of strategy to survive in the highlands. Going up was the
alternative. That would require probably more sophisticated logistics both for
protection as for pastures survival.
In this paper it will be observed how the communities
of the mountains took advantage of very hard natural conditions, to live in. In
order to develop this theme it will be observed how the populations of the mountains - Serra da Estrela, Marão e Gerês reacted to
weather behaviour and developed their own strategies for protection using “wasted resources” like rocks, mud, dells, peat or still timber.
In order to analyze this case study several kind of
sources, historical, ethnographical and archaeological it will be crossed. The first ones will comprise geographical
data describing the landscape, scientific reports and parliamentary debates
produced in the 19th century. Secondly, it will be consulted
secondary bibliography on archaeological and ethnographic aspects to
contextualize the trails and material proofs of the igloos made of rocks and
perhaps of timber.
Houses of God: supernatural
protection against natural threats in the south of Portugal in the Middle and
Modern Ages
Pedro
Picoito, Instituto Superior de Investigação e Ciência
In the western, pre-contemporary period was characterized by the influence of
religion as well as of the dependence of nature behaviour in the
collective live. In order to tame the strength of the elements the
supernatural was constantly evoked. In
such a dimension that many contemporary historiographically paradigms relate
the technical and scientific progress to the decline of religious practices and
believes such as the Max Weber Work the “Disenchantment of the World”
The appeal to the supernatural against the inclemency
of the weather, epidemics or the risks that put in danger agriculture, fishing,
travelling or other daily life issues, ahs been drawn in the Christian
tradition to specializes saints as: saint Barbara (lightning and fire)); Saint Nicolas (sailing and maritime trips); saint
Christopher St. Nicholas
(seafaring), St. Christopher (land travel), San Isidro (crops), St. Peter
(fishing), St. Anthony (livestock), St. Margaret (births), San Sebastian
(plague ), Lazarus (leprosy), San Roque (skin diseases), San Blas (diseases of
the throat), Santa Luzia (eye diseases), Santa Apollonia (toothache), etc..
These devotions are widespread throughout Christendom, but there are also
particularly venerated intercessors regional or local level who can play the
role usually assigned to the saints experts. This is the case in Portugal, the
popular St. Anthony, whose cult sometimes replaces that of St. Peter among the
fishermen, or Our Lady, universal intercessor in different situation.
Thus, the invocation of God, Santa Maria and other
patron saints against natural hazards is clothed in medieval and Modern Europe
of three frequent public forms. Firstly, the dedication of churches or chapels,
which means that a historical survey of the temples of the onomastic one region
may indicate the most feared natural phenomena by its inhabitants in the past.
Secondly was the cyclical cult of a saint through pilgrimages or processions,
usually annual, that when (s) (s) to the party (s) in the calendar to move the
faithful to make a shrine to pray, make offerings, to meet votes or simply
participate in camp or at the fair. Thirdly, the rites of a request for
extraordinary aid a saint, image or relics, known in the Mediterranean area by
rogation, a special kind of procession or pilgrimage designed to placate
unexpected natural disasters such as droughts, floods, epidemics, earthquakes,
etc.
Thus, this presentation proposes to study these three
forms of invocation of the saints against the threats of the environment in the
regional Mediterranean Portugal, as defined by the geographer Orlando Ribeiro,
and throughout the medieval and modern. Unable to thoroughly analyze a
geographical area and chronological period so extensive, try several
comparative case studies of some sites for which there is already a significant
number of sources and studies, to obtain a global perspective as possible on
the issue question.
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