The island of Diu, off the coast of Gujarat in Western India, is peculiar. A laid-back and unassuming place in modern days, relatively hard to reach from anywhere but the Saurashtra peninsula above it (or Mumbai, from which there are now a few flights), most visitors will feel that it establishes a relationship of continuity with the surrounding state of Gujarat as much as it stands apart from it, and may be surprised to encounter a built heritage of a grandeur that seems at odds with its present quietness. While its Portuguese colonial past, which lasted from 1535 to December 1961, may be partly responsible for its specificity, the truth is that Diu was an especially dynamic place long before that. In fact, the historical centrality of Diu is largely unknown and rarely acknowledged, and the particular characteristics of the territory, of its inhabitants, and their culture are very much neglected. As a contribution towards redressing this obscurity, the international congress, Diu and the Diuese: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, was held in Lisbon in October 2016. A selection of the papers presented on that occasion constitutes the contents of this special issue. The objectives of this congress were to locate Diu in broader geographies of research, going beyond its current peripherality to observe this territory not only as a player in former Portuguese colonial networks in Asia, but also in much wider networks of circulation. Granted, in such an endeavour, one must unavoidably approach Diu as a part of former Portuguese India and interpret its fortunes in connection with the strategies of empire in the Indian subcontinent and East Africa. But a highly relevant fact is that, in the sixteenth century, the urgency of the Portuguese in controlling the island derived from the fact that it was already one of the leading ports of western India, with a crucial role in the western Indian Ocean routes that linked East Africa, the Persian Gulf, and the Indian subcontinent. For centuries, dynamic trade transformed Diu town into a cosmopolitan settlement and brought in diverse communities, art forms, languages, cultures, and knowledge, the signs of which are still visible despite its decline as a bustling port city. The congress, and therefore this special issue, were intended to be diverse. Participants encountered Diu and its people in different periods of time, met them in different geographies, read them in different sources, and interpreted them through the lenses of different academic disciplines. One of the key aspects of the conceptualization of the congress is revealed in its title and repeated in that of this special issue: ‘Diu and the Diuese’. Approaching Diu as a place plus its inhabitants, in the present as in the past, opens up interdisciplinarydialogues that are crucial to revisit and reinvent research fields. In the case of Diu, it enables us to engage with the stories that are kept alive in the memories of its inhabitants, to acknowledge the considerable impact of intense migratory fluxes to and from Diu, enmeshing colonial and postcolonial dichotomies, and to understand the transportation and transformation of cultural, religious, and linguistic practices. As a result of the interdisciplinary gesture that underlay the congress, then, the contributions in this volume represent a variety of disciplines, chiefly anthropology, ethnomusicology, linguistics, and literature – though they exclude papers from the strict domain of history, which will feature in a separate publication. As we see it, the wealth of historical, artistic, and social complexities that they unveil stands as an illustration of the need to pay more attention to places, populations, and contexts seen as marginal or secondary. However, precisely because Diu has been in that position and, as such, may be relatively uncharted territory for many, we should start with a brief introduction of the place and its people, and of the extent to which the humanities and social sciences have engaged with them.

中文翻译：

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Diu 和 Diuese：印度洋、遗产和文化景观

印度西部古吉拉特邦海岸附近的迪乌岛很奇特。在现代，这是一个悠闲而朴实的地方，除了上面的索拉什特拉半岛（或孟买，现在有一些航班）之外，从任何地方都很难到达，大多数游客会觉得它与古吉拉特邦周围的状态与它相距甚远，并且可能会惊讶地发现宏伟的建筑遗产似乎与其目前的宁静不一致。虽然其从 1535 年持续到 1961 年 12 月的葡萄牙殖民历史可能是其特殊性的部分原因，但事实是，在此之前很久，第乌是一个特别有活力的地方。事实上，丢的历史中心地位在很大程度上是未知的，很少被承认，以及领土的特殊特征，它的居民，他们的文化被严重忽视。作为对纠正这种模糊的贡献，2016 年 10 月在里斯本举行了国际大会 Diu 和 Diuese：多学科视角。 此次特刊的内容包括在该场合发表的论文选集。本次大会的目标是将 Diu 定位于更广泛的研究领域，超越其目前的边缘性，不仅将这片领土作为前葡萄牙在亚洲的殖民网络中的参与者，而且在更广泛的流通网络中进行观察。诚然，在这样的努力中，人们必须不可避免地将迪乌视为前葡萄牙印度的一部分，并将其命运与印度次大陆和东非帝国的战略联系起来。但一个高度相关的事实是，十六世纪，葡萄牙人控制该岛的紧迫性源于它已经是印度西部的主要港口之一，在连接东非、波斯湾、和印度次大陆。几个世纪以来，充满活力的贸易将 Diu 镇变成了一个国际化的聚居地，并带来了不同的社区、艺术形式、语言、文化和知识，尽管它作为一个繁华的港口城市已经衰落，但其迹象仍然可见。大会，因此本期特刊，旨在多样化。参与者在不同的时间遇到​​了丢丢和它的人，在不同的地域遇到了他们，从不同的来源阅读了他们，并通过不同学科的镜头来解读他们。大会概念化的关键方面之一体现在其标题中，并在本期特刊“Diu and the Diuese”中重复出现。无论过去还是现在，都将 Diu 视为一个地方及其居民，开启了跨学科对话，这对于重新审视和重塑研究领域至关重要。在 Diu 的案例中，它使我们能够接触到其居民记忆中鲜活的故事，承认进出 Diu 的强烈迁徙潮的巨大影响，使殖民和后殖民二分法交织在一起，并了解交通以及文化、宗教和语言实践的转变。作为代表大会的跨学科姿态的结果，本卷中的贡献代表了各种学科，主要是人类学，民族音乐学、语言学和文学——尽管它们将论文排除在严格的历史领域之外，这将在单独的出版物中介绍。正如我们所看到的，他们揭示的丰富的历史、艺术和社会复杂性表明需要更多地关注被视为边缘或次要的地方、人口和环境。然而，正因为 Diu 一直处于那个位置，因此对许多人来说可能是相对未知的领域，我们应该首先简要介绍这个地方和它的人，以及人文和社会科学参与的程度跟他们。他们揭示的社会复杂性表明需要更多地关注被视为边缘或次要的地方、人口和环境。然而，正因为 Diu 一直处于那个位置，因此对许多人来说可能是相对未知的领域，我们应该首先简要介绍这个地方和它的人，以及人文和社会科学参与的程度跟他们。他们揭示的社会复杂性表明需要更多地关注被视为边缘或次要的地方、人口和环境。然而，正因为 Diu 一直处于那个位置，因此对许多人来说可能是相对未知的领域，我们应该首先简要介绍这个地方和它的人，以及人文和社会科学参与的程度跟他们。