Periodic Reporting for period 4 - VINCULUM (Entailing Perpetuity: Family, Power, Identity. The Social Agency of a Corporate Body(Southern Europe, 14th-17th Centuries))
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2023-12-01 do 2025-05-31
The VINCULUM project researched a key feature of the social fabric of Pre-modern societies of southern Europe and their colonial spaces: entails (morgadios, mayorazgos) and chantries. These institutions, analysed jointly under the term of entailment, developed as a form of maintaining property within specific family formations, by creating a corporate body, administered by the chosen successors, in a horizon of perpetuity. The corporate body, which encompassed the living, the deceased, and the future family members, had enormous power. Anchored in the deep culturally-constructed figure of the founder, it regulated human relations within the family and outside it; it established specific relationships with property and the economy; it negotiated tradition and controlled change. The matrix of entailment organization far surpassed social solutions. It constituted a cultural phenomenon, almost genetic to society.
Building on the Portuguese-Iberian case, the project proposed to study entailment as a diverse but pivotal practice, one embedded in law, aristocratic discourse, and kinship-based organization, and to carry out comprehensive analysis that explores this global nature.
The project’s central hypothesis was that entails were entities endowed with corporate agency, which in turn conditioned individual agency. Such entities were structured around three parameters: kinship, power, and identity. Finally, it was argued that the potential for social organisation of entails could be studied with a focus on the “Atlantic territories” of the Portuguese Empire, especially on the islands of total colonisation (the Azores, Madeira, Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Príncipe), and that one might be confronted with the existence of “entailment societies.” The four volumes of historical studies confirmed these hypotheses, explaining how they unfolded historically.
The project’s database, built from an innovative documentary survey – a cartography of the institutions producing documentation – is a core product whose archival structure will allow it to be used for research on multiple themes. Its construction was documented in detail, so as to ensure full transparency regarding the data collected, and the process was described in the “User Manual” and in the “VINCULUM Information System Guide”. Like all the other results of the project, it is available in open access and preserved in a Zenodo community.
Building on the Portuguese-Iberian case, the project proposed to study entailment as a diverse but pivotal practice, one embedded in law, aristocratic discourse, and kinship-based organization, and to carry out comprehensive analysis that explores this global nature.
The project’s central hypothesis was that entails were entities endowed with corporate agency, which in turn conditioned individual agency. Such entities were structured around three parameters: kinship, power, and identity. Finally, it was argued that the potential for social organisation of entails could be studied with a focus on the “Atlantic territories” of the Portuguese Empire, especially on the islands of total colonisation (the Azores, Madeira, Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Príncipe), and that one might be confronted with the existence of “entailment societies.” The four volumes of historical studies confirmed these hypotheses, explaining how they unfolded historically.
The project’s database, built from an innovative documentary survey – a cartography of the institutions producing documentation – is a core product whose archival structure will allow it to be used for research on multiple themes. Its construction was documented in detail, so as to ensure full transparency regarding the data collected, and the process was described in the “User Manual” and in the “VINCULUM Information System Guide”. Like all the other results of the project, it is available in open access and preserved in a Zenodo community.
The proposed scientific outputs were all achieved: creation of the historical-archival database and writing of historical studies based on it, answering the initial questions and leading to a new definition of the historical phenomenon of entailment in Portugal, from a comparative perspective in Southern Europe.
The database brings together a vast amount of information, divided into three interrelated modules: entails, people, documents. The database is accompanied by an "Information System Guide" which explains the institutional contexts of information production and the framework of entails, thus allowing for a complete understanding of the data collected. A comprehensive "User’s Manual" has been written, setting out the theoretical assumptions, all the archival work done and to be done, and the treatment of information in the database. The database is 99% written in English, with the exception of highly specialised historical terms that are not translated in scientific works.
The planned historical studies were carried out, and the four planned sectoral books were published (Kinship – Power – Identity - Entailment Societies). A conference on comparative perspectives was held and the resulting book was published. Five more books were also published, based on the evolution of the research and the science communication programme that the project developed with great success. A last book recounts a great experience in science communication and brings together forty-eight texts written by amateur historians, young researchers and secondary school students (the result of a school competition promoted by the project. Multiple book chapters and articles in scientific journals have also been published (or are in press), and three special issues of peer-reviewed journals have been organised. Ten international meetings of various kinds were held in Portugal and abroad, and team members proposed papers or were invited to participate in various scientific meetings.
The objective of disseminating the research and the importance of ERC scientific funding was also achieved, particularly important since that the project was in the field of Social Sciences and Humanities. VINCULUM project has undoubtedly contributed to changing this situation, having been broadcast on national and regional television, featured in major newspapers and cultural magazines, and held a wide range of science communication events that have already earned it two international awards.
The database brings together a vast amount of information, divided into three interrelated modules: entails, people, documents. The database is accompanied by an "Information System Guide" which explains the institutional contexts of information production and the framework of entails, thus allowing for a complete understanding of the data collected. A comprehensive "User’s Manual" has been written, setting out the theoretical assumptions, all the archival work done and to be done, and the treatment of information in the database. The database is 99% written in English, with the exception of highly specialised historical terms that are not translated in scientific works.
The planned historical studies were carried out, and the four planned sectoral books were published (Kinship – Power – Identity - Entailment Societies). A conference on comparative perspectives was held and the resulting book was published. Five more books were also published, based on the evolution of the research and the science communication programme that the project developed with great success. A last book recounts a great experience in science communication and brings together forty-eight texts written by amateur historians, young researchers and secondary school students (the result of a school competition promoted by the project. Multiple book chapters and articles in scientific journals have also been published (or are in press), and three special issues of peer-reviewed journals have been organised. Ten international meetings of various kinds were held in Portugal and abroad, and team members proposed papers or were invited to participate in various scientific meetings.
The objective of disseminating the research and the importance of ERC scientific funding was also achieved, particularly important since that the project was in the field of Social Sciences and Humanities. VINCULUM project has undoubtedly contributed to changing this situation, having been broadcast on national and regional television, featured in major newspapers and cultural magazines, and held a wide range of science communication events that have already earned it two international awards.
The research undertaken showed that the social importance of entailment was enormous and long-lasting in the societies under study. Thousands of entails were founded across all territories, structuring in particular the colonisation societies. Their social weight was considerable, both because they imposed a model for organising people and groups, and because of the administrative resources that central powers, both civil and ecclesiastical, devoted to their control. The project’s database, compiled only with verified information, brought together approximately 7,200 entails, encompassing approximately 34,000 documents. In the case of the Atlantic territories, including Brazil, a systematic survey of founded entails was carried out for the first time, and a large body of previously unpublished documentation was made available. Entailment was indeed a phenomenon of major significance in the case study, and comparative studies with other areas of Europe confirmed its singularity, but also showed that the topic requires further research beyond Portugal, where its importance may be underestimated.
On the other hand, the science communication activities carried out by the project, based on the documentation organised in the database, also made it possible to realise that entails were of great significance in the creation of largely unknown (and at risk of disappearing) historical and archival heritage. It was observed, however, that collaboration between scientific research and local history allows for the rapid reactivation of knowledge, arousing great interest on the part of civil society. The social value of recovering this past is considerable. It not only makes it possible to identify and preserve heritage at risk, but also draws attention to the deep timeframes embedded in social identity. For this reason, the VINCULUM project invested heavily in science communication: it organised a school competition, promoted initiatives to protect monumental and archival heritage linked to entails, published books with contributions from civil society authors, produced public films on the project’s activities, and released a final documentary narrating its entire scientific and outreach journey (VINCULUM: a journey of scientific research). In 2025, the VINCULUM project received two awards – the YERUN Open Science Prize and an honorary mention in the European Union Prize for Citizen Science – which attest to the social impact of the research carried out.
On the other hand, the science communication activities carried out by the project, based on the documentation organised in the database, also made it possible to realise that entails were of great significance in the creation of largely unknown (and at risk of disappearing) historical and archival heritage. It was observed, however, that collaboration between scientific research and local history allows for the rapid reactivation of knowledge, arousing great interest on the part of civil society. The social value of recovering this past is considerable. It not only makes it possible to identify and preserve heritage at risk, but also draws attention to the deep timeframes embedded in social identity. For this reason, the VINCULUM project invested heavily in science communication: it organised a school competition, promoted initiatives to protect monumental and archival heritage linked to entails, published books with contributions from civil society authors, produced public films on the project’s activities, and released a final documentary narrating its entire scientific and outreach journey (VINCULUM: a journey of scientific research). In 2025, the VINCULUM project received two awards – the YERUN Open Science Prize and an honorary mention in the European Union Prize for Citizen Science – which attest to the social impact of the research carried out.