Tânia Manuel Casimiro 

Material culture, identity and globalization: Glass, glazes and beads in Portuguese trade networks (1500-1800)

In the early modern age Portugal was among the first European countries to start an overseas venture. New people and things rapidly transformed it into a multicultural country with permanent contacts with the rest of Europe. In spite of the vast knowledge from documents describing overseas contacts, in recent years archaeological excavations have revealed how these contacts influenced the productions and consumption of material culture. What happened in this country influenced Europe, especially in the 15^th and 16^th century, and the Iberian Peninsula in a wider period. The country produced and traded different commodities which are fundamental in the study of globalization and how different people and identities related to such things. 

These commodities were in part responsible vehicles of change in how Europeans perceived the world, its dimensions and cultural variability, leading to a change in aesthetics and the introduction of new shapes. This presentation will discuss those objects, how do they reflect an early modern globalized world and how they influenced European daily lives.

Short Bio

Tânia Manuel Casimiro graduated in History and Archaeology in NOVA University of Lisbon, took an MA in Artefact Studies at University College of London and returned to NOVA for her PhD in 2011. With over 200 papers and books on the subject her research focuses on the early modern period and contemporary global contacts of people and objects. On a more theoretical level, she deals with frameworks concerning how individuals and things relate and interact in the formation of identities, and how can they reflect globalized ontologies.