No description available.

Brazil was the first country in South America to launch a television network and air television shows. Television programming was designed to develop national capitalism and to foster a national identity. Although Brazil is composed of an overwhelmingly large population of African descent, they are usually underrepresented in mainstream media, chiefly in telenovelas (soap operas). This research examines what happens when a telenovela attempts to portray issues of race relations and tensions in contemporary Brazil. Duas Caras (“Two Faces”), a TV Globo telenovela aired October 1, 2007 to May 31, 2008. The show was a turning point in Brazilian programming because it was the first prime time soap opera to present audiences with an Afro-Brazilian as the main hero. It was also the first novela das oito (“eight o’clock” or “primetime soap opera”) to openly address racial issues through its plot and dialogue. However, in depth critical and theoretical analysis of different episodes demonstrates that instead of debunking the myth of racial democracy, this soap opera in fact helps to further reproduce it through the portrayal of interracial relationships amongst the characters. As shown here, interracial relationships between white and Black Brazilians was used as a strategy of erasing African ancestry traits from the population through a process of whitening. This report combines a traditional textual analysis of Duas Caras with theoretical frameworks about race relations, gender and anti-Black racism in Brazil. The investigation revealed how telenovelas contribute to social ideology and hegemonic discourses in a way that has not been properly recorded. This discussion contributes to Latin American media studies generally, and the scholarship on interracial relationships in Brazilian media particularly. / text

This study examines the relationship between indigenous identity, ancestral land, and socio-politics in Brazil. The author analyzes the practices by which contemporary indigenous communities in Brazil physically reclaim their land from cattle ranchers and the impact of these practices on their self-representation, ideology, and social discourse. The first section of the study provides a historical overview of cultural politics from colonization to the 1991 Constitutional Decree that guaranteed Indians' rights allowing for the demarcation of ancestral lands. The second section examines the Xukuru do Ororubá in Northeastern Brazil with a focus on their struggle with local cattle ranchers and government officials as they move from peasant-farmers who rented their ancestral land from fazendeiros (ranchers or plantation owners) to legal occupants of their demarcated territory. The third section introduces the organization made up of Xukuru and non-indigenous advocates at the helm of projects in “sustainability”, and analyzes how and why these projects promote a new subjectivity and become en emblem of indigeneity and land ownership. / text

Current efforts to measure child mortality for municipalities in Brazil are hampered by the relative rarity of child deaths, which often results in unstable and unreliable estimates. As a result, it is not possible to accurately assess true levels of child mortality for many areas, hindering efforts towards constructing and implementing effective policy initiatives for the reduction of child mortality. However, with a spatial smoothing process based upon Bayesian Statistics it is possible to “borrow” information from neighboring areas in order to generate more stable and accurate estimates of mortality in smaller areas. The objective of this study is to use this spatial smoothing process to derive estimates of child mortality at the level of the municipality in Brazil. Using data from the 2000 Brazil Census, I derive both Bayesian and non-Bayesian estimates of mortality for each municipality. In comparing the smoothed and raw estimates of this parameter, I find that the Bayesian estimates yield a clearer spatial pattern of child mortality with smaller variances in less populated municipalities, thus, more accurately reflecting the true mortality situation of those municipalities. These estimates can then be used, ultimately, to lead to more effective policies and health initiatives in the fight for the reduction of child mortality in Brazil. / text

This thesis analyzes attitudes about race in Brazil in three research sites conducted in 2008 and 2009. The first research site was Salvador, Bahia where I asked a total of twelve students and professors their opinions about the importance of discussing race relations in Brazil and their views on Affirmative Action. These participants were mostly white middle-class students and professors. The second site was in the periferia of Zona Sul in the neighborhood of Capelinha, São Paulo. I interviewed four residents about the importance of race in Brazil. Here, the residents were mostly non-white, from various states in the north and northeast, and were working class. The last research site was Cooperifa, which is a spoken word movement located near Capelinha in Zona Sul. I found that non-white periferia residents subscribed to the same racial attitudes as the middle-class white participants when discussing the importance of race as a social phenomenon. In turn, I found that Cooperifa participants perceived white privilege as a social phenomenon that needs to be challenged. This thesis examines the links across these three sites and draws from theories of whiteness to understand them. / text

This study examines how two community art programs in Brazil have empowered participants through art practice. The programs are contextualized historically and theoretically to address how program participants from varying social, cultural, and economic backgrounds, are prepared to be responsible world citizens. / text

No description available.

No description available.

The AmazonCoop--a cooperative that mediates trade between Brazilian Amazonian indigenous groups and the transnational cosmetics firm The Body Shop--seeks to use the market opportunities provided by neoliberal economic globalization to achieve sustainable development in indigenous villages, with mixed results. While the cooperative provides significant material benefits, it fails to achieve the social goals of democracy, participation, and self-development embodied in the cooperative principles. In this paper, I examine AmazonCoop in the context of historical globalizations on Brazil's "extractive frontier," demonstrating substantial continuity between contemporary and historical political economies. I use this historical anthropological analysis to discuss the potential contributions of cooperatives to development, the relationships between historical and contemporary globalizations, and the political-economic landscapes on which indigenous people can pursue their interests.

Large, conical mounds known as sambaquis form the contours of prehistoric settlement, resource procurement, and ritual along the southern coast of Brazil. This research examines faunal remains from Jabuticabeira II, a large shell mound exclusively used as a cemetery for approximately 1000 years (between 2500 - 1400 BP). Its complex stratigraphy alternates between dark burial deposits and light, thick layers of shells. Various groups used neighboring burial areas simultaneously, and faunal analysis of these burial deposits suggests that animals, especially fish, played an integral role in feasts performed to honor the dead.Detailed investigation of feast remains from 12 funerary areas indicates recurrent use of the same resources during the events, especially catfish and whitemouth croaker. Mammals and birds were also part of the ritual and were deposited in association with burial pits, especially during the final episode of construction. The remains of feasts were then used to fill the funerary areas and demarcate the domain of the dead. Recurrent depositional episodes of massive amounts of shell valves eventually formed a large mound, and the building materials were carefully selected to emphasize the opposition between interment areas and covering layers.The results primarily indicate strong continuity in the feasts. A dramatic shift in the materials used to build the mound during the final period of its construction does not coincide with a change in the faunal assemblage. Examination of Brazilian ethnography sheds light on several aspects of mortuary ritual and explains the association of features discovered at the site. Feasts incorporated resources accessible to all group members, and reinforced the connection of groups with estuarine landscape. The identification of bounded deposits that can be assigned to specific affinity groups allows studies of the nature of social relationships. This permitted the development of a sampling strategy that targeted social units, a breakthrough approach. The unique access to affinity groups can answer questions about the behavior of these social units and the association of their members.