Concluding Thoughts

As this project wraps up I have begun to think about my overall project and research question, which was "How do the Portuguese observe rituals of death, historically and in present times, and how have these customs changed throughout history". I believe that the information that I have amassed over the semester has answered this question. From sources such as Patricia Goldey's article to modern day funeral planning websites to will and inheritance law websites, I have discovered how the Portuguese have treated death and death rituals over time, from the past to the present.

The one thing that my research has not provided me with is information on how the Portuguese treated death in their colonies. This information remained elusive throughout the semester, primarily because the main Portuguese colony was Brazil and all the information I found was post-colonialism. As I've stated before, I do realize that any traditions that took place in Brazil would have most likely been influenced from Portuguese colonialism but there would have been other outside influencing factors as well and I wanted to keep my research focused solely on Portugal and its traditions. As such, I elected to leave Portugal's colonies out of my project. Instead I focused more on what took place in the motherland and how wills and inheritance laws work and have evolved over time.

The topic of wills and inheritance was confusing and overwhelming and extremely legal. Yet it was interesting, especially since I know next to nothing about the same topic in American society. By finding as many different sources as I could to explain wills and inheritance in Portugal, I feel as though I finally have a good grasp on the topic and will be able to show how it has evolved over time. I am quite satisfied with that aspect of my project now.

The Patricia Goldey essay by far was the most helpful of all my sources. It was the most interesting because it covered just about every aspect about death and death rituals in Portugal that I could think of and it gave me a good basis to begin my project with. By being able to use her essay and compare it to modern day rituals, I feel as though I have a good timeline of how death rituals have evolved over time in Portugal.

Some of my posts have just been about random information and facts that I discovered about death in Portugal. I feel as though these are important fillers to the rest of the information I have and add to the completeness of my overall project. I still have a few things that I want to discuss for my final project, information that I am still working on going through, so I am probably going to make a few more blog posts just as a way to have all my information in a coherent and organized place. Overall though, I feel as though I am in a good position to finalize my project. My research has been interesting and enlightening in ways that I did not imagine at first. This project has taught me a lot about Portugal and the way it treats death and ritualizes it.

I would say that death and death rituals in Portugal have definitely evolved and changed over time and I have the research to back up that assertion. I am working on compiling it all into my timeline approach for the project and will continue to use my blog to organize my thoughts and finalize the project.