Jacinto Rocha-Alta’s testimony draws us to the memories associated with the sieve and the miller’s profession. Milling was his livelihood for many years, as well as that of numerous other mill workers along the Guadiana.
João Chilrito, a Luz resident, learned his craft as a chair-maker from older men such as his father and grandfather, in a time when any man would make a chair. Every artisan, he claims, had their own way to build a chair — like a distinctive watermark, a chair can be told from the rest […]
The cast net comes associated with memories of fishing net making, fishing, and the riverbank landscape. The submergence of the old village and creation of Lake Alqueva inevitably brought along shifts in the existing styles of fishing on the Guadiana. The art of making fishing nets has since fallen into disuse, living on as an […]
sed to carry lunch on a farming day, the lunchbox conjures life out in the fields, namely during meal time — a ritual moment reinforcing social relations amongst workers.
The largest in the village, Josefa Rosa’s zinc pan was lent around the community: it was big enough for cooking the typical lamb stews on festive occasions such as weddings and christenings.
Ermelinda Godinho talks about the whitewash pot, which speaks to us about a world of essentially female chores, from its use in wedding ceremonies to the functional and symbolic universe of whitewashing, seen as an extension of the domestic space towards the outside.
Many of the objects we use today had more rudimentary technology in the past.This time we expose a typology of object still used today, but in a more old-fashioned format. The iron.In this case, it is an object made of iron, presented in the form of a triangular prism, with a line of holes along […]
The Alentejo region is usually known for its high temperatures in summer, but also marked in winter by very cold temperatures compared to the center-south and south coast.In this sense, in the last month of winter we exhibit an object associated with cold weather. A shovel used to collect ashes from the fireplace.This shovel features […]
This month we highlight an object linked to the kitchen subcollection. In this case, the tach.Until the middle of the 20th century, kitchen services were sparse in quantity. The pot was one of the few objects that adorned the kitchen space occupied almost exclusively by the ladies.The exposed pan has a blue enamel with white […]
As in many portuguese villages, public and domestic electrical lighting was a mirage until the mid-20th century. In this sense, night lighting in the homes of many people from Light village population resorted to various types of light fixtures, including candlesticks like the one on display this month.It is an object with a circular base […]
