HIS693 Race, Gender and Culture in Brazil History
Spring Semester 2008
Dr. Donald Ramos

Introduction:
I assume that Brazil and its history are not foremost in your thoughts. Despite its size and economic importance it has not been the frequent subject of public attention in the U.S.. And yet its history has often been compared to that of United States by scholars. For several centuries, North Americans have looked at Brazil in consternation or bemusement because of its definition of race and the way in which that definition has played out in daily life. Today the North American view of that reality has become more complex and knowledge-based with those seeking to see race through a western prism being called cultural imperialists and those insisting on describing Brazilian attitudes toward race on traditional Brazilian terms being seen, put charitably, as closet racists.
At the same time, the Brazilian view of race has become more intensively debated. Public universities and government have adopted affirmative actions plans, drawing on their understanding of developments in the U.S.. Issues which have seemed settled have emerged as contentious and once again the national identity of Brazil is being debated.
The issue of race in Brazil is a microcosm of attitudes toward race throughout Latin America and is a study shaped by European, native American and African cultures and peoples, producing a continuum of labels and categories whose complexity can be confusing, even to Brazilians. The result is a kaleidoscope of mixtures and shadings which serve to paper over harsh realities. Today, the kaleidoscope is in movement once again. In the case of Brazil, the issue is who is white and who is black and is there a middle ground. In the case of nations like Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia the issue is the resurgence of an indigenous identity.
This reading seminar will look essentially at race within the context of one South Atlantic society and culture being constructed out of indigenous, African and Portuguese (European) peoples and value systems. To add to this discussion and enrich it we will also look at gender in the twentieth-century. This will allow us to discuss the relationship of race, gender and culture in Brazil within the context of constructing a viable national identity. My basic objective is to explore the ways in which race and gender have been used to construct the identity of Brazilian culture.

Course Structure:
The first week will be spent discussing the nature of historiography and its role in graduate education and developing a set of criteria for evaluating the material to be read. These criteria will be modified as the seminar proceeds. We will also discuss the history and historiography of Brazil. The bulk of the course will be a discussion of the selected books. The final paper in the seminar will be a comparison of two of the books we will have read. Book reviews will be due the first day the book is discussed but can be revised after the class discussion.

Note on the works selected: This reading list is not intended to be compendium of the very best works available. That is certainly true for the works written by Brazilian svholars inasmuch as some of the very best works have not been translated. In some cases, i have chosen works because they are “classics,” (Rebellion in the Backlands) in other cases because they work together (Hanchard and Dávila) and, in still some others, because they cry out to be read (Reis). We will be discussing why we are reading these works and your comments and suggestions on that or anything else are invited, really.

Caveat:

I look at all courses as dynamic interactions betweem you, me and the readings. As the course proceeds and as we address the material and your interests, i understand that we may make changes. In this regard, your suggestions, in class, by email, or by notes slipped under my door, are encouraged.

Readings:

Introduction
Week 1
Eugene Robinson. Coal to Cream: A Black Man’s Journey beyond Color to an Affirmation of Race. New York: The Free Press, 1999.
This work by a noted reported and political pundit discusses his experiences with race in Brazil.

Week 2
Boris Fausto. Translated by Alan Brakel. A Concise History of Brazil. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
OR
Darcy Ribeiro. The Brazilian People: The Formation and Meaning of Brazil. Translated by Gregory Rabassa. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000.
These books provide a vision of the sweep of Brazilian history as seen by Brazilian scholars.

Week 3
Daryle Williams. Culture Wars in Brazil: The First Vargas Regime, 1930-1945. Chapel Hill: Duke University Press, 2001.
This work is intended to describe the heated battles over Brazilian identity during an important period of Brazilian history and to lay out the conceptual structure for this course.

Colonial Period
Week 4
John Thornton. Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
or
John Thornton. The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian Movement, 1684-1706. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Each of these books explores the place of Africa in the Atlantic world.

Week 5
James H. Sweet. Recreating Africa: Culture, Kinship, and Religion in the African-Portuguese World, 1441-1770. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2006.
This study brings the issue of Africa and the role of African culture to Brazil.

Week 6
Gilberto Freyre. Masters and the Slaves: (Casa-Grande and Senzala) a Study in the Development of Brazilian Civilization. Any edition
This is a classic work which has sparked debates among several generations of historians. It seeks to define the uniqueness of Brazilian race relations.

Week 7
Euclides da Cunha. Rebellion in the Backlands. Translated by Samuel Putnam. University Of Chicago Press, 1957 or any edition.
This is a class study of Brazilian identity, written by a positivist journalist.

19th Century
Week 8
João José Reis. Slave Rebellion in Brazil: The Muslim Uprising of 1835 in Bahia. Translated by Alan Brakel. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.
This study by a noted Brazilian historian is an exploration into the nature of the racially defined community of Salvador with a particular emphasis on the role of Muslims and the divisions between African and Brazilian-born blacks.

Week 9
Maria Odila Leite Da Silva Dias. Power and Everyday Life: The Lives of Working Women in Nineteenth-Century Brazil. Translated by Ann Frost. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1995.
Power and Everyday Life brings together issues of race and gender during an important, but frequently ignored, period.

20th Century
Week 10
Lilia Moritz Schwarcz . The Spectacle of the Races: Scientists, Institutions, and the Race Question in Brazil, 1870-1930. Translated by Leland Guyer. New York: Hill and Wang, 1999.
In many ways a prequel to Daryle Williams’ work, Schwarcz explores the period from the initiation of both abolitionism and Republicanism to the beginning of the Vargas government.

Week 11
Sueann Caulfield. In Defense of Honor: Sexual Morality, Modernity, and Nation in Early-Twentieth-Century Brazil. Chapel Hill: Duke University Press, 2000.
Or
Susan K. Besse. Restructuring Patriarchy: The Modernization of Gender Inequality in Brazil, 1914-1940. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
Both works look at issues related to gender during the period prior to the Vargas administration. Both look at efforts at general equality in a society defined by patriarchy and machismo.

Week 12
Jerry Dávila. Diploma of Whiteness: Race and Social Policy in Brazil, 1917-1945. Chapel Hill: Duke University Press, March 2003.
Looks at the implantation of an ideology of whitening.

Week 13
Michael Hanchard (ed.). Racial Politics in Contemporary Brazil. Chapel Hill: Duke University Press, 1999.
Looks at the development of racial politics and identity in the period before affirmative action emerged as a powerful political force.

Week 14
Jonathan W. Warren. Racial Revolutions: Antiracism and Indian Resurgence in Brazil. Chapel Hill: Duke University Press, August 2001.
Places the same issues in the context of indigenous peoples.

Week 15
Jeffrey Lesser. Negotiating National Identity: Immigrants, Minorities, and the Struggle for Ethnicity in Brazil. Chapel Hill: Duke University Press, December 1999.
Expands the discussion to include other immigrant groups from Asia and from the Middle East.