A DIVULGAÇÃO DO TABACO BRASILEIRO NA CHINA. A MIRAGEM DE UM MERCADO巴西煙草在中國的傳播：市場的幻覺
The article examines the circulation of Brazilian tobacco in China, arguing that its “arrival” and the consequent image of an established market stem from historiographical misunderstandings and a teleological reading of sources. Rather than accepting common narratives—such as the idea of a late ent...
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| Published in: | Review of Culture |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Articles |
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Instituto Cultural de Macau
January 2007
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| Online Access: | https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40021/3725 |
| Summary: | The article examines the circulation of Brazilian tobacco in China, arguing that its “arrival” and the consequent image of an established market stem from historiographical misunderstandings and a teleological reading of sources. Rather than accepting common narratives—such as the idea of a late entry, the regional naturalization of the plant, or the precedence of opium consumption—the author reconstructs the chronology and transfer circuits of tobacco from the American continent to the Far East, highlighting how agronomic adaptation, differentiation of preparations, and Iberian knowledge (pharmacopoeia, cultivation, and processing) enabled the rapid expansion of *Nicotiana*.
Methodologically, the work articulates syntheses of historical literature and documentary evidence on routes and milestones of adoption (India/Goa and the western coast via the Portuguese; the Philippines via the Spanish; projection into Southeast Asia and Japan), in order to then problematize how the Chinese presence was described and interpreted.
The conclusions indicate that the expansion of tobacco in Asia depended on specific mercantile and cultural networks, but that later readings—especially in the West and in retrospective records—tended to transform a complex diffusion into a simplified “market,” obscuring mediations, uneven temporalities, and changes in consumption practices. |
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| ISSN: | 1682-1106 |