MACAO AND BRAZIL AN ANCIENT DIALOGUE TO BE ENHANCED

Expansion movements have been, throughout time, a constant factor of change of the Earth's landscape. The invaded enviroment, evaluated as a whole in which man relates directly with his surroundings creating his work, is generally speaking the victim of a rupture caused by new ambitions, new ideas, new proposals, new ways of life.

The new invaders, as they expand, also receive changes in their cultures and carry new elements to their new landscape. These changes, however, are absorbed in a systematic way, the heaviest toll falling upon the invaded areas, whose natural and cultural landscape is often deeply altered.

In the construction of the environment's history, the interpretation of history, the interpretation which analyses humankind's development and his work in a permanent relationship with the landscape that surrounds him, i. e.: within an integrated globalizing vision, a thorough study of these expansions is being increasingly developed. Along with rather negative aspects generated by the imposition of new habits, new beliefs, differentiated and inadequate technologies, which provoke the 'etiolation' of the landscape of entire regions, some others appear showing positive aspects, like the cultural links which are established, providing for an intercultural dialogue, the policultural pockets, and the points of support created through similar expressions. From all these intercommunicating vessels an extensive cultural interchange arises and is intensified and this is indispensable to the understanding of a multifaceted and policultural World, and to a greater comprehension of the several factors imposed by 'biodiversity'.1

Within the European expansion movement, mainly between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries, the attempt which took place in Asia was greatly weakened by the strong impact caused by scientific and cultural developments which had already existed in the region for a long time. This fact determined that its influence over the local cultures was very light, with much less intensity than in America where this expansion, permeating all the areas of contact, provoked huge ruptures in the development of several local cultures, causing a series of new differentiated cultures, some of which are still undergoing a phase of strong 'Europeanization'.

As an example of the formation of differentiate cultural nucleous, we shall take those derived from the Portuguese expansion, which was, from our point of view, the one among European expansion movement which initiated the dialogue between several populations of several Continents. Although politic attitudes did not favour in most occasions, a more frank and open commercial interchange - so necessary to the strenghtening of the cultural dialogue - the Portuguese ways allowed, in certain regions, a deeper mingling with the local populations, establishing also the possibility for the people of different places to which there was a more or less formal access.

Communication attempts between Brazil and Asia began a long time ago. Anthropological studies of great responsibitility show that Asian population layers are an ancient influence in the process of populating the American Continent. A series of common points of contact between the populations of Asia and the indigenous American populations is, very likely, the cause of a certain compatibility which is felt in the relationship between the peoples of the two Continents.

In more recent times, this communication was accelerated with the establishment of the first maritime connection which, after the reconnaissance visit to Brazil, in 1500, by the fleet of Pedro Álvares Cabral on its way to India, became permanent not only through the regular and/or irregular navigation lines but also through the political and economical activities administered by the Portuguese Crown and by a series of other activities deriving from these. A new universe of knowledge arriving from Asia and America2 was being spread in the European Courts, especially in Portugal and Spain, after the beginning of the sixteenth century.

From this perspective, the communication between China and Brazil begins in the second half of the century through the opening offered by Macao, a link between Portugal and China and a basis for all the communication with Japan. Later, this link was to become tighter through the 'Things3 and People' which were brought and/or came from Macao to Brazil directly or through Lisbon. Little by little Macao started a dialogue with Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, a dialogue which assumed several forms, which spread and became deeper. Also participating in this interchange were several Eastern and Western regions which received Portuguese influence. The profile given by Portuguese culture to Macao, Goa, Salvador, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, as well as many other parts of the World, added to this dialogue an element of harmony, flexibility and permanence.

The seventeenth century was a period of great changes in the Portuguese relationship with Asia as well with America. The decrease in Japanese commerce and the fall of Malacca created serious problems in the development of Macao, hindering its agile communication with the other areas of the Portuguese commercial network. The operational fall of the trading factories of India, along the Dutch world warfare, who through their commercial Companies attacked simultaneously Portuguese positions and ships in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, represented a deep wound to the Portuguese presence throughout the area.

The Restoration and the consequent assent to power of the Dynasty of Braganza, brought a new vision to the Overseas Empire. Portugal started to look upon the lands of Brazil, which were becoming increasingly productive with sugar and tobacco crops, as a territory capable of fulfilling the gaps left by the presence of other Europeans in Asia. Dom Pedro II of Portugal tried to take to Brazil the production of Asian spices, the planting of which had already been initiated, although immediately forbidden, in the sixteenth century. 4 The gold mines and, later, the diamond mines are also responsible for the greater attention given to Brazil, which began to be seen as a good solution for the difficult situation Portugal was in due to the mercantilist action aggressively and initiated in Asia by the North European commercial Companies.

While the Dutch East Indies Company occupied, with great commercial competence, such former Portuguese positions as Nagasaki, Malacca and Cochin, the presence of the Dutch West Indies Company in Brazil brought many problems and gave place to 'many legends'.5 However, it did not by any means obstruct the development of Brazil, nor did it disintegrate the Brazilian territory. The action of the Bavarian merchants which was simultaneous, predatory, although efficient in the Indian Ocean, was nevertheless in the Western Atlantic a great deal more weak and timorous.

The attempt to plant Asian seeds in Brazil was always accompanied by the practical idea of not only bringing in the seeds and seedlings but also to implement farms native of the cultivation region itself. This concern may be seen in the bringing of cinnamon seedlings from Ceylon6 and China, 7 pepper seedlings from India8 and later on, of tea from China. Although today we know that these attempts to plant had a far bigger success than could be imagined at the time, there are doubts concerning the true specialization of the farmers who were brought. 9

Nevertheless, it is certain that the trees and plants of fructiferous Asian spices started early and were successful in penetrating the Brazilian forests. The Jesuits had good results with the cinnamon plants10 of the Quinta do Tanque, in Bahia, fructiferous trees such as jack-fruit trees, jambo-fruit trees11, bread-fruit trees12, carambola trees13 from the Southeast of Asia, mango trees and several kinds of fig trees from India, as well as other plants which grew vigorously, many of them penetrating the woods and thus finding a place among the native species, henceforth participating in the ecosystem of the Brazilian forests. However the nutmeg tree, native of the Islands of Banda14, had great problems in its planting. Its seedlings needed greater care in the acclimatization process. The first to expand in Brazil15 had their seedlings brought, at the end of the eighteenth century, from the Garden of Poivre in the Île de France through Caen, penetrating in Brazil through Pará from where they multiplied. Later on, already in the nineteenth century - in 1809 and 1812 - with the celebration of the Macanese Senator Refael Botado de Almeida, species which were also acclimatized in the Mascarenhas Islands, mainly lichee trees16 and camphor trees from China, 17 were brought directly to Rio de Janeiro.

In terms of the commerce between the Portuguese dominions, the attempts to build together an integrated economy were always obstructed by the Crown. In spite of the fact that, by the end of the eighteenth century, the Brazilian tobacco leaves and mainly the tobacco powder, were commercialized in Macao and through Macao, the attempt made by the merchants of Goa, Macao and the Brazilian ports of Bahia and Rio to have a greater and more direct access to the lines of commerce and to the production centers always met the opposition of the overseas Administrators. Very often, although with great diplomacy, they contested and intervened to change the tendencies of the King of Portugal himself. 18 Several attempts to establish direct sea links with Brazil and vice versa, which the Macanese and Brazilian merchants had insistently tried since the seventeenth century and even more insistently in the eighteenth century, 19 only had success a true opening, with the 1810 Treaty, 20 i. e.: when the Royal Court was already in Brazil. In those times the vector of Portuguese commerce had to be, compulsorily, the ports of Brazil, mainly the port of Rio de Janeiro. The Kingdom's power of decision was there, as were the main sources of production. The opening of the Brazilian ports in 1808 concerned the external commerce, but for the commerce between the several Dominions it still presented a series of aberrations21 which obstructed the immediate commercial traffic with Macao, an issue which found a solution only in 1810.

The opening of the 'Carreira' ('Line') ports allowing a direct commerce between Goa and Brazil was seen, in the seventeeth and eighteenth centuries, as dangerous in face of a political-social situation which was already being sketched. 22 There was also the fear that Brazil would intercept the commerce of goods coming from the East African region of the Sena river and vice versa, which created problems of flow mainly to Goa, and to the control of profits by the Metropolis. 23

The Official situation was, as always, substituted by a semi-Official situation and it became impossible to control the entry of Asian products in Brazil, which had been provoked by the 'liberdades' 24 of the 'Carreira' ships, the false emergency stops of these ships, the tendencious control systems used in these circumstances, the entry of smuggled goods through foreign ships, not to mention the amount of Oriental products legally brought by the high officers of the Kingdom who went to serve in Brazil.

The lists of ships of the Carreira da India (India Line)25 show the entry of large quantities of Indian cloth as well as Chinese silks, ceramics, enamel work, tables and other lacquer objects coming from Macao. The taste for blue-and-white ceramics, mainly antiques, and for those later called 'Macao' became fashionable among the Brazilian society in the developing sugar and tabacco plantation areas and, later on, in the mining areas. The Chinese ceramics, denominated 'Companhia das Índias' ('India Company'), started to be an indispensable commodity at the important families. Later, these families had their coat-of-arms pictorially decorating this type of wares. The interest in 'things of the East' was forming not only among members of the upper classes but also among the ordinary people. There was, also, an interest in Macao itself. Was it the lure of a land almost on the antipodes? Or the Oriental elements of the first populations? The taste for the East? I would not call it just a fashion, rather we may understand it as a sensibilization provoked by an increased perception of the textures, forms and colours brought by the Eastern way of feeling.

Under evident instigation of the Motherland [Portugal], Brazil received some influences of European chinoiserie. Traces of this influence may be detected in several places, some even in the so-called Chinese forms which appear in details of the Rococo style in certains churches and sculpture work, as perhaps in the Church of Nossa Senhora do Ó (Our Lady of O), in Sarabá, Minas Gerais. However, some exemples of the Bahia and Nordeste religious statuary26 show a direct influence of Goese and Macanese Christian images. In them it is possible to feel the results of acculturation processes which have nothing to do with chinoiserie trends.

Was this influence brought by religious men? Or was it that the movement of inter-dominion information which brought us the Indipetas27 had a direct influence? The Rites Controversy brought to Brazil a great number of religious men who had been in the East, mainly in China, and with them much information and models which certainly influenced the taste of the times. When observing Chinese influences on Brazilian forms, highly evident is the difference between the more veracious and harmonic touches brought through the connections with Macao and the artificialism displayed in the multiple acculturation and manipulated crossings of European chinoiserie.

The settling of the Portuguese Royal Family in Rio de Janeiro brought new and interesting aspects of the Brazil-Macao connection. Besides the fact that Government documents started to be received in Rio de Janeiro, where the Royal Family was established, there was a keen interest in developing Brazil - a land sheltered from the problems which were so damaging in Europe and were spreading to other more remote regions under French and British rule. Among the new plans of agricultural incentive were the tea plantations initiated in the region neighbouring the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas and climbing the slopes of the Tijuca massive, in the region crossed by the picturesque road today called Estrada Dona Castorina, were it is possible to find the old pavilion called Vista Chinesa (Chinese View) built in the last century. Other plantations were started in the Fazenda Real, the old fazenda (farm) of the Jesuits, in Santa Cruz. The comming of the Chinese tea planters to Brazil is being mentioned in several old and more recent publications, 28 and the documents which exist at the Arquivo Nacional do Rio de Janeiro ([ANRJ] National Archive of Rio de Janeiro). 29 When these are analysed in a multidisciplinary way they may offer more valuable information on this matter.

As for information regarding the quality of the soil and the success of the plantations, there are several though not very definite opinions. The political pressure which Great Britain was making on Portugal and which so seriously affected this Country's development also affected Brazil and other regions under the control of the Portuguese Crown. Great Britain, which retained the commercial control of Eastern tea did not have the least interest in the progress of the tea cultivation in this outpost of production and diffusion of goods - Brazil - under the control of another European Nation, whose production space was huge and whose coasts would be uncontrolable even for the powerful British Navy. The possibility of an excess of tea production by Brazil, as had already happened with sugar, and the possible flow of this production beyond its control, urged the British Crown to attempt to destroy the development of this brilliant initiative of the Earl of Linhares.

Only deeper studies on the tea agriculture in Brazil will be able to clarify this situation which is, up until now, based on few testimonies and often conflicting quotes. Let us take into consideration the opinion of Spix and Martius about the flavour which they describe as being "[...] of a somewhat sour and clay-like taste." However, Maria Graham30 enjoyed its taste after trying it. Carl Seidler, 31 who was there around 1825, praised the support given by King Dom João IV, who brought tea plantations to Brazil, and deserves better attention to be given to these plantations, whose product is of fine quality, only a little inferior to the Chinese product. The same Seidler does not spare Britain's actions against the tea plantations in Brazil, which was already by this time independent from Portugal.

The documents contained in Box no.507 of the ANJR, 32 which refer to the accounts of the Fazenda Real of Santa Cruz in the period between 1814 and 1821 require a deeper study. Through them may be felt the social evolution of the Chinese in the region. By analyzing the wages, the number of people hired, the purchase of goods, of materials necessary to accomplish their customs and rites, and by the description of their festivities, we may feel the fluctuation of this community which spread, mainly, in the Santa Cruz region, 33 and perceive that some must have left the intensive plantation work and started to manufacture and sell Chinese products, both those manufactured by them and those which came from Macao via the port of Rio, whether legally imported or not. Their main customers were members of aristocracy and high bourgeoisie who setteled, during summer time, in the neighbourhood of the Fazenda Real of Santa Cruz. The handsome, although small group of neoclassical houses of the burgh of Santa Cruz was inhabited by a cosmopolitan population which had a great attraction for the commercial goods which arrived from Macao.

The news of the Portuguese Royal Family's return to Motherland [1821] and of the Independence of Brazil [1822] took a long time to arrive in Macao. In the years to follow many Portuguese Government documents sent to Macao still went via Rio. The interest of Brazil in Macao continued and did the search for an interchange between Brazil and China, also willing to have Macao as its main partner.

The draft (original manuscript) of a document dating from October 1846, by António Menezes de Vasconcellos Drummond, 34 at the time the Plenipotentiary Minister of Brazil in Portugal, attest the interest of the Brazilian Government for Macao and for the Chinese techniques used in the agricultural development. 35 In this manuscript by the hand of Vasconcellos Drummont, one may feel a modern vision of the exchange of technologies appropriated in the field of agriculture; an attempt to understand the Chinese rural society and to gather a correctly commented bibliography on the subject. The manuscript also reflects the problems caused by the lack of information in Lisbon about the contemporary situation of Macao. 36 Vasconcellos Drummond states that only two to three ships went every year to the Macao, to collect a provision of tea which was only for the consumption of the Kingdom. He adds, with some sadness, that the relationships between Lisbon and Macao were no longer the same and that the information about this City was very difficult to get in the Portuguese Capital. Some time earlier, the Consul of Brazil, Joaquim J. Pereira da Veiga, had died in Macao. He had tried to establish commercial links between Brazil and this City which he had got to know so deeply. In the text of the Brazilian Ministry in Lisbon, the death of the Consul was also regretted and mentioned "[...] because from him one could gather prioritary informations being has he was an intelligent and inquiring man [...]."37

Among the documents existing in Brazil containing descriptions of Macao, the Biblioteca Municipal de São Paulo [BMSP] Municipal Library of São Paulo) has a codex of great interest: Relação da viagem que Diogo Baduen da Serra fez a Macau, China, Mossâmedes, e Rio de Janeiro na nau N. S. da Conceição e Lusitânia Grande [...] (Account of the voyage made by Diogo Baduen da Serra to Macao, China, Mossamedes and Rio de Janeiro on the vessel[s] Nossa Senhora da Conceição and Lusitânia Grande [...]). [see: p. *]This document is now under study together with the Memória de Macau (Memory of Macao) by José de Aquino Guimarães e Freitas, which is kept in the Biblioteca Nacional do Rio de Janeiro ([BNRJ] National Library of Rio de Janeiro) - [see: p.*].

Reaserch of the Macanese documents which exist in Brazilian Archives, both public and private, together with the research of the objects which exist in the Museums and Collections, and research of botanical species, will bring more contributions to a whole past of links between Macao and Brazil and vice versa. This 'history of a dialogue' will probably increase further the tightening of present and future relations between the two regions. Analyzing this relationship from a contemporary point of view, it is clear that Macao has always been for the Brazilian a memory of enchantment, and that the curiosity for the 'quasi antipodes' is growing more and more. On the other hand, one notices that the Macanese living in Brazil are prefectly integrated into the Brazilian community.

Exhibitions which took place at the Museu do Primeiro Reinado (Museum of the First Kingdom), in Rio de Janeiro in 1982 and 1983 - "0 Gosto do Império" ("The Taste of the Empire") May-November 1982, and "No Caminho das Indias" ("On the Route to the Indies"), January-April 1983 - brought information about Macao, its landscape, its people, its culture. Both in the first [exhibition], which tried to show the pluriculturalism which influenced the early nineteenth century Brazilian culture, and in the second [exhibition], which showed the origin of the Brazilian policultural features, it was important to show the culture of Macao and to see the deep impression it created on the various social layers. For some, perhaps even many "[...] the name of Macao became independent of the large soup tureen of the traditional Brazilian homes, 38 and it became alive, as a sign of a lush place, with Portuguese style houses similar to ours, mingled with Chinese cultural expressions and where even the Chinese speak like us."39

These similar characteristics which link Macao to the coastal cities of Brazil, mainly to Rio de Janeiro, its twin City, carry the perspective of a greater development of interchange with a friendly Nation, embracing two communities.

Both Rio and Macao have the same responsibilities to preserve policultural pockets integrated with the environment, a duty which requires sensible action and to which the exchange of ideas and solutions may be of a great help. The protection of cultural traditions, the conservation of the integral landscape, which was declared indespensable in the Agenda for the twenty-first century established at the United Nations Conference for the Environment, may be one of the bases to further increase this centuries-old dialogue.

Translated from the Portuguese by: Rui Cascais

NOTES

1 This form of analysis is essential for the implementation of the Agenda. 21 of the United Nations Conference for the Environment and Development, which took place in Rio de Janeiro, in June 1992.

2 Also from Africa.

3 'Things' in the general sense of objects and specimen.

4 The Prohibition was not enough to prevent ginger (Lat.: Zingiber officinale), which was a root, from penetrating the soil and spreading throughout Brazil.

5 As for instance the excesses which are committed regarding the scientific and cultural devolopment shared with the local population in the regions occupied by the Dutch, something that came to be considered mythological.

6 Ceylonese cinnamon (Lat.: Cinnamomum zeylanicum).

7 Chinese cinnamon (Lat.: Cinnamomum cassia).

8 Indian pepper (Lat.: Piper nigrum).

9 Some documents show us that regarding pepper, the canaris (Indian-Christian farmers of the Kanara region) had little experience and knowledge on how to plant the Piper nigrum.

See: SPIX, Johann von, - MARTIUS, Karl Friedrich Philipp von, Viagem no Brasil, 2 vols., São Paulo, Melhoramentos, 1973, vol.1, p.75 -The authors say that the Chinese settlers who were brought according to the tea planting plans of the Earl of Linhares in the early nineteenth century had been chosen in the interior.

10 Mostly with the Cinnamomum zeylanicum, but also with the Cinnamomum cassia.

11 Jack-fruit (Port.: Caneleira; Lat.: Eugenia malaccensis).

12 Bread-fruit (Port.: Fruta-pão; Lat.: Artocarpus incise).

13 Carambola (Port.: Caramboleira; Lat.: Averrhoa carambola).

14 Nutmeg [from Banda] (Port.: Moscadeira; Lat.: Myristica fragans).

15 The nutmeg tree is dioecious and until this detail was noticed it was impossible to grow it.

16 Lichee (Port.: Lichia; Braz.: Liche; Lat.: Nephelium litchi).

17 Camphor (Port.: Cânforeira; Lat.: Cinnamomum camphora).

18 In spite the attempt for a greater openness, as seen in the Notícias (News) of some Governments, for instance in the IHGB: Carta do Conde de Assumar futuro Marques de Alorna enviada de Goa em 1745 (Letter of the Earl of Assumar future Marquis of Alorna sent from Goa in 1745), lata [tin box] 73, doc. 16, 22 fls.; or in the IHGB: Instruções do Vice-Rei da Índia sobre o porto e a cidade de Macau (Instructions of thr Viceroy of India for the port and the city of Macao),1783, lata [tin box] 37, doc. 4, 43 fls. - copy.

19 RÊGO, António da Silva, Relações directas entre o Macau e o Brasil: um sonho irrealizável? (1717-1810) (Direct relations between Macao and Brazil: -An impossible dream? (1717-1810)) in: "Boletim de Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa", Lisboa, Jul.-Dez. [Jul.-Dec.], 1976, pp.117-152-This is the most complete work on the subject.

20 Alvará(Garantee) of the 13th of May 1810 signed by the Prince Regent Dom João, which exempts Custom Duties on all Chinese goods directly exported from Macao aboard Portuguese ships - on the 7th of July of the same year there was an alteration to this permit concerning tithe and Custom Duties exemption.

It would also be curious to observe documents such as IHGB: Cartas do Desembargador Diogo Vieira de Tovar e Albuquerque ao Conde de Anadia relatando o estado dos estabelecimentos portugueses na Asia (Letters of the Chief Judge Diogo Vieira de Tovar e Albuquerque to the Earl of Anadia reporting on the state of Portuguese settlements in Asia), 1809, lata [tin box] 100, doc. 3,24 fls.

21 The Treaty of 1808 concerned only external commerce.

22 We can mention as one of the examples the political movements of liberation which took place by the end of the eighteenth century in Goa (the 'Revolta dos Pintos' ('Pintos Rebellion')) and in Brazil (the 'Inconfidência Mineira' (lit.: 'Miners' Treachery'; hist.: revolutionary movement against Portuguese colonialism in Brazil).

23 Documents the end of eighteenth century show the serious debate on the possibility of this link.

See: MR: Correspondência do Vice-Rei António Luís da Câmara Coutinho nos Arquivos de Goa (Correspondence of the Viceroy António Luís da Câmara Coutinho in the Archives of Goa), MS. 63ff.

24 The Right that the crews had to transport a certain amount of goods aboard.

25 We would like to mention the study of professor José Roberto do Amaral Lapa, Bahia and the Carreira of India, Brasiliana, vol. 338, which contains excellent information on the subject.

26 Mainly on the Cachoeira region, as we may see in the religious imagery of the Matriz (mother church).

27 Indipetas, i. e.: letters exchanged by Jesuit missionaries working in far-off countries.

28 By the time we had finished this article we received the contributions of professors Carlos de Moura [see: pp.**-**] and José Roberto Teixeira Leite [see: pp**-**], Both of whom mention the subject.

29 Mainly those in box 507.

30 GRAHAM, Mary, Diary of a voyage to Brazil and a stay in that country during a part of the years 1821,1822 and 1823, São Paulo 1956.

31 SEIDLER, Carl, KLINGER, Bertoldo, trans., Ten years in Brazil, São Paulo, Martins, 1825..

32 This lata [tin box] contains the documents concerning Fazenda de Santa Cruz (Farm of the Holy Cross), from 1795.

33 Santa Cruz belongs to the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro.

34 IHGB: DRUMMOND, António Meneses de Vasconcellos, Apontamentos sobre a China em rascunhos (Sketchy notes about China), lata [tin box] 2, doc. 7,14 fls.

35 BNRJ: Colecção Martins (Martins Collection), ANDRADE, José Ignácio de, Cartas escritas da Índia e da China nos anos de 1815 a 1835 (Letters form India and China written between 1815 and 1835), 1846, I-24,28,29 - Copies of documents about tea, its cultivation and handling.

36 The document by António Menezes de Vasconcellos Drummond, which conveys a vision on environment and development unexpected for this time, is now undergoing a phase of interdisciplinary study aiming at its publication in the future.

37 Dating from the same year of 1846, a document was registered at the BNRJ: ANDRADE, José Inácio de, Notícia sobre o chá, sua cultura e manipulação extraída das "Cartas escritas da Índia e da China nos annos de 1815 a 1835" (Report on tea, its plantation and handling extracted from the "Letters from India and China written between 1815 and 1835"), [n. d.], I-25, 27, 30 - Copy. Such a document showing the interest of Emperor Dom Pedro II for the cultivation of tea.

38 In the Forties many Brazilian children called the blue-and-white ceramics tureen, and sometimes the soup itself, 'Macao'.

39 Comment made by a visitor to the exhibition "No Caminho das Índias" ("On the Route to the Indies"), Museu do Primeiro Reinado [SMU] (Museum of the First Kingdom), Fundação Nacional de Arte do Rio de Janeiro [FUNARJ] (Rio de Janeiro National Foundation of Art), Rio de Janeiro, January-April 1983.

* Ph. D in Archeology. Museologist. Specialist in the History of Environment and environmental impact provoked by the European expansion in Asia and America. Director of the Center of Museologic, Human and Environmental Studies ([MOUSEION] Port.: Centro de Estudos Museológicos e de Ciências do Homem e do Meio Ambiente), and of the Route of Spices Project. Author of the general plan and implantation of the Ecomuseu da Hidroeléctrica de Itaipu Binacional (Ecomuseum of the Hidroelectric Dam of Itaipu Binacional). Coordinated the issue of the Unesco periodical "Museum", about the museums of the Portuguese Language Countries. Founder of the Triannual of Museums, Meeting of Museums of Portuguese Language Countries and Lusology ([TRIOMUS] Port.: Trienal de Museus, os Encontros de Museus de Países de Expressão Lusófana e a Lusologia), an international society of specialists, museums and institutions of Portuguese Language. In 1980 and 1983, was elected Member of the Board of Directors of the International Council of Museums [ICOM]. In 1989, was appointed President of the International Committee for Museums, Archeology and History of the ICOM representing the Council at the United Nations Conference for the Environment and Development [UNCED]. In 1992, was appointed President of the International Network of Museums and Environment [M&E] during the Global Forum 92 of the UNCED.