Redefining Urban Space: Velha Goa and the Construction of Its Outer Fortification Wall

Summary

This paper sheds new light on the construction at the end of the 16th century of one of the most impressive, albeit ultimately superfluous, fortification walls in southern Asia: the 22km long wall surrounding Velha Goa—the capital city of the Portuguese eastern empire. Through discussion of legal documents pertaining to rural and city life, I reveal how the Portuguese came to conceive of the city as a separate space requiring new mechanisms of governance different from the countryside.  Comparing these data to my recent archaeological survey, I argue that, while historical documents suggest the wall was built for military/defensive purposes, it more accurately reflects the colonial government’s deep concern for security and circulation.  The physical and conceptual boundaries evident in Goa thus reveal the growing struggle of the Portuguese to govern and define urban space more generally and an example of how the colonial experience presaged changes in European "governmentality."

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• "Totus mundus agit histrionem": Global and Trans-National Historical Archaeologies   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2015

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 380