Heritages and Memories from the Sea

Abstract

These are the proceedings of the first international conference organised by the UNESCO Chair in Intangible Heritage and Traditional Know-How: Linking Heritage, dedicated to the theme “Heritages and Memories from the Sea”. This international meeting, as well as the chosen theme, seeks to address the need to discuss the present situation of sea heritage, deconstructing past ideological representations with a view to developing a sense of a common history and a shared future. In the following lines, we would like to explain this choice more clearly. Part of Portuguese, European and world history was built around the capacity to access the sea and control maritime routes. To look no farther, the Romans were organised around a sea they called their own, the city-states of Italy and the North Sea left their mark on history by controlling maritime traffic, and the European colonial empires were largely maintained by their ability to control trade routes and strategic areas such as straits. In the Indian Ocean, the Omanis and many Indian states, as well as the Chinese in their cyclical expansionist movements, also regarded the sea as a key element in their strategic policy.