António dos Santos Graça (1882—1956) was a Portuguese

ethnologist Ethnology (from the , meaning 'nation') is an academic field and discipline that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). Scien ...

, journalist and politician notable for the study and preservation of Poveiro

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

, and

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

. He was born and also died at

Póvoa de Varzim Póvoa de Varzim () is a Portugal, Portuguese city in Norte Region, Portugal, Northern Portugal and sub-region of Greater Porto, from its city centre. It sits in a sandy coastal plain, a cuspate foreland, halfway between the Minho River, Minho ...

. António dos Santos Graça was born on 16 January 1882 at his home on Street Carvalhido. He was the son of John of Saints Constantine and Maria Francisca. Graça was a versatile man, running businesses and working in fields as diverse as the textile industry, canning, journalism, writing and ethnography. António dos Santos Graça spent a lifetime studying culture of the unique maritime Póvoa community. When he died in 1956, he left behind a substantial amount of work that enriched Portuguese ethnography of the twentieth century. Graça was also a keen politician. He held an important place in the

Portuguese Republican Party The Portuguese Republican Party (, ) was a Portuguese political party formed during the late years of the constitutional monarchy that proposed and later brought about the replacement of the monarchy with the Portuguese First Republic. ...

. He was an esteemed citizen of Póvoa de Varzim, a fact that led to his being elected to the Parliament in 1919 and in 1925 to the position of senator from District of Porto. Among his works are ''O Poveiro'' (1932), ''A Crença do Poveiro nas Almas Penadas'' 1(1933), ''Inscrições Tumulares por Siglas'' (1942) and ''A Epopeia dos Humildes'' (1952).

References

1882 births 1956 deaths People from Póvoa de Varzim 20th-century Portuguese scientists Portuguese ethnologists {{ethnologist-stub