Jews and marranos, in Portugal and in Brazil, in the first half of the 20th century

anti-semitism and social darwinism?

Abstract

This article seeks, on the one hand, to characterize the evolution of the portuguese of jewish origin from the beginning of the 16th century to the first quarter of the 19th century; on the other hand, to analyze the specific situation of portuguese citizens and brazilian citizens of marrano origin from the 1830s to the immediate post-World War II and post-Holocaust period. The aim is also to reflect on the possibilities and risks of defining patrimonialization and sociocultural intervention strategies that are based either on historiographical production and other social sciences, or on memory and post-memory about jews and marranos, in Portugal and in Brazil, in the first half of the 20th century. For this purpose, we will use theoretical categories such as anti-judaism and anti-semitism, philo-semitism and zionism; nationalism, social darwinism, racism and xenophobia, eugenics, religious fundamentalism and secularism; discrimination, mass violence and genocide, transitional processes. I remember that portuguese citizens and brazilian citizens of marrano origin were both the target of discrimination by fellow citizens of catholic culture and jewish origin, and marked by the consequences of their own strategy of survival and resistance in the centuries of systemic persecution (16th to 18th) and in the decades of less or more aggressive tolerance (1820s to 1970s).