La Côte Portugaise dans la Tradition Populaire: Adaptation, Détermination et Durabilité

In Portugal, the connection with the sea goes back a long way. Even before the Discoveries there was a long tradition linking its people with maritime activities. The aim of this article is to address the question of the relationship of the fishing communities with their territory, and more specifically to understand their knowledge on the environment in which they lived. Historical sources are used to identify examples of traditional ecological knowledge, on the everyday realities of the fishing communities as well as their knowledge of coastal environments, including the climate, the geography and the ecosystems.
This analysis concentrates on the coastal populations which settled on the Portuguese coast between Espinho and Nazare, in the period from the late eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. This article takes a multidisciplinary approach, borrowing concepts and methods from various fields of social sciences and humanities - History, Anthropology, Literature and Geography – so as to uncover worlds of meaning, standards of conduct, customs and works associated with certain groups, in space and time.