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Culture of Crops vs. Crops as Culture: African Rice in Early Modern Southern Portugal?
Fernando Mouta
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DOI:10.17265/2159-550X/2026.01.002
University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
This article examines rice in the early modern Atlantic world through two complementary prisms: the “culture of crops” and “crops as culture”. The first situates rice as a vital commodity, essential for provisioning ships, sustaining enslaved labor, and supporting colonial settlements. European traders sourced rice from West African markets embedding the crop within local and Atlantic economic networks. The second prism highlights rice’s cultural significance, encompassing identity, ritual, and foodways, which accompanied African populations across the Atlantic. The study then focuses on the Sado estuary in southern Portugal, exploring the possible introduction of African rice (Oryza glaberrima) by enslaved African communities. The estuary’s tidal marshlands, with fluctuating salinity and hydrological complexity, resembled West African rice-growing environments, suggesting feasible adaptation of cultivation techniques. Historical sources document enslaved Africans’ presence and rice consumption in Lisbon and surrounding regions, while local oral traditions and environmental evidence indicate early rice experimentation in the Sado and Tagus estuaries. Although direct archaeological evidence is lacking, rice may have been cultivated on small-scale plots, combining subsistence, cultural practice, and agroecological knowledge. The Sado hypothesis highlights how subaltern populations could have shaped early Portuguese agroecologies and the long-term development of regional rice cultivation.
crop circulation, Portugal, early modern period, slavery, African culture, environmental history
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