Skin Color, Racial Identity, and Life Chances in Brazil

Abstract

Brazil has long held a special place in comparative studies of race relations and identity. The attention the country has received, especially in the annals of North American social science, derives from its lack of legally sanctioned discrimination since slavery was abolished in 1888 and its long history of widespread miscegenation, resulting in an elaborate system of multiracial classification. These unique characteristics contributed to the widely held view that Brazil, unlike the United States, could be described as a &dquo;racial democracy,&dquo; free of violence, segregation, and discrimination. This image, although accurate in some respects, has eroded in recent years, largely because of the findings of empirical research and increased public awareness of the discrimination that occurs in everyday life. After decades of silence, race has emerged as a legitimate topic of research and as a rallying cry for a host of cultural and political organizations.For all of the nuance and complexity embedded in the social meaning of skin color in Brazil, there is a growing body of empirical evidence that offers important insights into its relationship to identity, inequality, and discrimination. These findings draw heavily on census and survey data, which are hardly ideal sources of information on topics of such extraordinary intricacy. In the face of some obvious limitations, however, with appropriate caveats it is possible to derive meaningful conclusions from the large samples afforded by national censuses and surveys.In assembling the available data into a meaningful story, we found it useful to think of inequality and discrimination as subtle interrelated processes that impinge on Brazilians of African descent throughout the life course. The image of the life course immediately draws the eye to those critical junctures Peggy A.

Ritual Theory and Attitudes to Agency in Brazilian Spirit Possession

“…The former has a higher proportion of white and middle-class members and the latter includes a greater proportion of black and lower-class members. (It is important to keep in mind that race in Brazil is a complex issue, with tensions less sharply defined than in other areas of Latin America [Lovell and Wood 1998;Hoffman and Centeno 2003;Fischer 2004]) On the other hand, there are important ritual similarities between the two religions, including the predominance of women as participants (though of men in leadership roles), the passe or laying on of hands (more common in Kardecism), and the blessing of items such as T-shirts and medallions, given to infants and the sick for the purposes of protection and cure (more common in Umbanda).…”

Umbanda and Hybridity

“…Rather, the diffusion of religious ideas and the adherence of new types of members led to a broader than usual mix of co--religionists. It is important to keep in mind that race in Brazil is a complex issue, with tensions less sharply defined than in other areas of Latin America [Lovell and Wood 1998;Hoffman and Centeno 2003;Fischer 2004]. As a result, even explicit talk of race sometimes masks, e.g., talk of class, and vice versa.…”

Agudiza el desarrollo las desigualdades sociales?

“…Currículo escolar muy tradicionalista, y sistema privatizado y polarizado (Grassi et al, 1999) La política de masas se bloqueó desde los años 20; un estado hiperactivo ha intervenido como un agente político más legitimándose con un discurso sobre el sufrimiento del pueblo; se ha entablado un "juego imposible" porque las autoritarias decisiones gubernamentales no consiguen ser ejecutadas ante las movilizaciones de la oposición (DiTella et al, 1965;Touraine, 1989;Cavarozzi, 1988;Papadópulos, 1999) La disciplina doméstica ha sido más explí-cita que en otros países, y la tasa de actividad laboral femenina es más baja; la pobreza general no registra un efecto claro de feminización (Gammage, 1998) El agregado de empleo sigue la pauta de AL, pero destaca la importancia relativa de los trabajadores agrícolas (cuadro 4). A igual categoría profesional, se observan claros efectos específicos de la desigualdad étnica en cuanto a la salud infantil, la escolaridad, la entrada en el mercado laboral, las condiciones de empleo y los ingresos (Lowell y Wood, 1998) …”

“…El empuje de los movimientos asociativos locales (Santos, 1998) puede ser una causa importante de la reducción de la pobreza en el sur del país (Amadeo y Neri, 1998) y de la ventaja del IDH * de Rio Grande do Sul con respecto a su producto per cápita (Santos, 1996). Con todo, la mejoría de la pobreza de ingreso se debe al efecto automático del control de la hiperinflación (Amadeo y Neri, 1998) y el racismo estructural aparece como un telón de fondo que coarta buena parte de estas iniciativas (Lowell y Wood, 1998).…”