Disinheriting the heritage and the case of Pauliteiras : young girls as newcomers in a traditional dance from the northeast of Portugal

Abstract

In an article entitled “La Méditerranée oubliée”, Jean-François Devret (2003) holds that there is a southern feeling of dissymmety and even deception arising from growing contrasts in society and economy. Within Southern and Mediterranean regions there are, however, other dissymmetries reinforcing the major ones. Those dissymmetries are being experienced and are happening in everyday lives, namely in young people’s lives, and they bear witness to deep inequalities at social, cultural, economical and regional levels. Portugal has been considered as a semi-peripheral context “which is a reference to the existence of socio-cultural and economic features that are typical of an intermediate level of development” (Rodrigues & Stoer 2001, p. 134).