In the Shadow of Power

Pedro Feytor Pinto headed the Department of Information Services (SEIT) in the government of Marcello Caetano who replaced Antonio Oliveira Salazar in 1968 as the head of the Portuguese government. Feytor Pinto has just released a book entitled Na Sombra do Poder (In the Shadow of Power)[Lisboa, D. Quixote, 2011, pp. 402]. Not wishing to classify it as history or memoirs, yet hoping that historians may find it useful, the author chooses to narrate events as he experienced them from his vantage point in the shadow of Power, during the years ending with the Carnation Revolt of 25 April 1974, which put an end to half a century of dictatorship, known as Estado Novo.

The importance of local museums in Portugal

The widening of the notion of heritage and the consequent redefinition of the “museological object”, the idea of community participation in the definition and management of the museological practice, museology as a development factor, the issues of interdisciplinarity, the use of “new technologies” of information and museography as an autonomous communications means, are examples of issues resulting from contemporary museological practices. If indeed museology in Portugal intends to continue to participate in international museology’s renovation process, it is evident that it must adequately (re)think theoretical and practical museology so as to meet the new demands…