Trade, prestige goods and insignias of power: african central-western agencies in the travel writings of Henrique de Carvalho in his expedition to Lunda (1884-1888)

• Grant number: 13/17609-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: December 01, 2013
• End date: June 30, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Modern and Contemporary History
• Principal Investigator: Maria Cristina Cortez Wissenbach
• Grantee: Márcia Cristina Pacito Fonseca Almeida
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 14/20223-7 - The Henrique de Carvalho's expedition to Lunda (1884-1888): documentary research and bibliographic in Portuguese archives, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, the region of West-Central Africa was scene the intensification process of European expeditions which have had combined economic, military and scientific interests in direction to the interior of the continent. Through the works Travel's Description to the Mussumba of Muatianvua (1890-1894) and Ethnographia and Traditional History of Lunda´s Peoples (1890), both produced by the portuguese explorer Henrique Augusto Dias de Carvalho (1843-1909) during his travel to Lunda's region, northeastern of current Angola, between 1884 and 1888, and of the catalog Henrique de Carvalho's collection (Lunda Expedition), edited by the Geographical Society of Lisbon in 1896, this study aims to analyse how the requirements and predilections central Africans by certain objects and products have molded the trade relations waged during this period. Within a broader recognition of the historical African agencies and from the perspective of social history, this research intend to investigate the phenomena of incorporation and resignification of objects - particularly the prestige goods and insignia of power - while expressions of identities, social codes and political hierarchies within of these societies and their relations with Europeans.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

ALMEIDA, Márcia Cristina Pacito Fonseca. Trade, prestige goods and insignias of power: African western central agencies in the travel writings of Henrique de Carvalho on his expedition to Lunda (1884-1888).. 2016. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD) São Paulo.