Week 9 - Brazil 2 and Conclusions

PART 1.  Challenges to Orthodox Catholicism: Liberation Theology and the Rise of Evangelical Christianity

Associated Readings

1. Leonardo Boff, "Church: Charisma and Power: Liberation Theology and the Institutional Church," pp. 107-136 (1981)
2. John Burdick, "Why Is the Black Evangelical Movement Growing in Brazil?" Journal of Latin American Studies 37, pp. 311-32 (2005)

I. What was/is Liberation Theology?

As with most of Latin America, the majority of Brazilians (around three-quarters) identify as Catholics. While a detailed exposition of Catholic faith and church governance is beyond the scope of this blog, I will make a handful of introductory comments. About one-sixth of the world's population (that is, about one billion people) are Catholics. (That's about half of all Christians.)  The Catholic church is made up of one Western church (the Latin Rite) and 22 Eastern Catholic churches, divided into 2,782 jurisdictional areas around the world. The Church looks to the Pope, currently Benedict XVI, as its highest human authority in matters of faith, morality and Church governance. The Church community is composed of an ordained ministry and the laity. Either may be members of religious communities like the Dominicans, Carmelites, Franciscans, Jesuits, Silesians and many others.

As those of you who are Catholic probably know, the Catholic church is hierarchical in comparison with other forms of Christianity. That is, individual priests and congregations cannot tinker with official doctrine and worship practices. Instead, the Catholic church is highly centralized and the final word rests with the Holy See, led by the Pope. (This means that major changes in Catholic governance and doctrine are extremely rare.) The role of the priest is also very specific within Catholicism, namely, to administer the sacraments.

Occasionally, the Holy See convenes councils to review church policy and practice. The most recent such council took place from 1962 to 1965. Known as the Second Vatican Council or "Vatican II" (the first had taken place nearly a century before), this council was convened by Pope John XXIII to reflect on the role of the church. Within these discussions, radically new interpretations of Catholic principles emerged. Vatican II was influenced heavily by bishops and theologians from Latin America, who argued that by ignoring political struggle, the church had failed to substantively help poor people in this part of the world. The theology that emerged out of these discussions -- later called "Liberation Theology" -- proposed that Jesus Christ was not only the Redeemer but also the Liberator of the Oppressed. It emphasizes the Christian mission to bring justice to the poor and oppressed, particularly through political activism. One the architects of Liberation Theology was the Brazilian philosopher Leonardo Boff, whose text is assigned in this week's reading. Boff is still very much alive, and continues to be highly influential in debates about democracy, globalization, and religion.


Liberation Theology has enjoyed widespread influence in Latin America and among the Jesuits, although its influence diminished within Catholicism after the Vatican issued official rejections of the theology in the 1980s and liberation theologians were harshly admonished by Pope John Paul II. The current Pope, Benedict XVI, has also been long known as an opponent of certain strands of liberation theology, and issued several condemnations of tendencies within it. Liberation theology has been described by proponents as "an interpretation of Christian faith through the poor's suffering, their struggle and hope, and a critique of society and the Catholic faith and Christianity through the eyes of the poor," and by detractors as a Christian form of Marxism. If you haven't read Leonardo Boff's text yet, read it now. Then, watch the short clip below to learn a bit more about Liberation Theology.

II.  Evangelical Christianity and Its Massive Growth in Recent Years

Anthropologist John Burdick's text for this week tells the story of the rise in recent years of Evangelical Christianity, especially among Afro-Brazilians. Read this short article from The Guardian to understand the historical backdrop of Brazilian evangelism's emergence and defining characteristics. Then watch the five-minute clip below to see some images of Evangelical Christians in Brazil.

PART 2. Urban Realities: Drug Lords and Masculinity in Rio de Janeiro

Associated Readings

1. Ben Penglase, "The Owner of the Hill: Masculinity and Drug-Trafficking in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil." Journal of Latin American & Caribbean Anthropology 15(2), pp. 317-37 (2010)

Associated Films

“City of God” (2002, 130 minutes; sources: STL, Netflix/DVD, Blockbuster, Amazon.com)

I. Outsider Fantasies of Rio de Janeiro


With the FIFA Soccer World Cup in Brazil right and the Summer Olympics coming in 2016, the city of Rio de Janeiro will be getting a lot of attention. Known as "the marvelous city" (a cidade maravilhosa), Rio has long functioned in the imagination of outsiders as a symbol for Brazil itself--or rather, for outsiders' fantasies of Brazil. On the one had, Rio evokes images of beautiful beaches populated by scant-clad women and men, 





On the other hand, Rio increasingly triggers associations with urban violence, kidnapping, and flying bullets. You can see the full range of these associations and stereotypes in the following 10-minutes clip from The Simpsons.  (Enjoy!)





Comedic value aside, this Simpsons episode serves as a reminder about something important: that stereotypes utterly pervade our understandings of Rio (and of Brazil more generally). The articles by Penglase and Anderson will take you deep into the favelas of Rio, giving powerful and troubling accounts of how young men and ordinary favela residents position themselves in different ways in relation to the drug trade, to gangs, and to their families. The amazing film, "City of God" presents the violent, intersecting trajectories of a group of boys growing up in one of Rio's largest favelas.


PART 3. Conclusions

Readings

1. Jan Knippers Black, "Conclusion: A new kind of togetherness," from Latin America: Its Problems and Its Promise, pp. 564-579 (2004)
2. Robert Gwynne and Cristóbal Kay, "The alternatives to neoliberalism," pp. 254-267 (2004)

To pull together our major course themes -- culture, politics, neoliberalism, social movements, violence, among others -- I'd like to end with a 30-minute presentation on YouTube by Prof. Noam Chomsky of MIT on future prospects for Latin America as it moves into the second decade of the 21st century.  I've chosen Chomsky for his critical stance on U.S. foreign policy in Latin America (and on neoliberalism generally) and because many of you perhaps saw Prof. Chomsky speak at SUNY-New Paltz a couple years ago.  I hope you enjoy the clip -- Please watch parts 1, 2, and 3.

Week 8 - Brazil 1

PART 1. Introduction to Brazil; Affirmative Action
Associated Readings

1. Peter Winn, “Capital Sins,” from Americas, pp. 165-199 (2006)
2. David Fleischer, “Brazil: From military regime to Workers’ Party Government,” from Latin America: Its Problems and Its Promise, pp. 470-482 (2011)
3. Seth Racusen, “Affirmative Action & Identity” from Brazil's New Racial Politics, pp. 89-122 (2010)

Associated Films

1. "Brazil in Black and White" (53 minutes, PBS, Blackboard video tab or via this link)

NOTE:  If you find yourself getting interested in Brazil, be aware that SUNY-New Paltz has an excellent study-abroad program in Rio, situated at a world-class university.  Check out the details here. 

I. Introducing Brazil (Draws from World Scholar/Latin America & the Caribbean, 2011)

Introduction
Brazil, the largest country in South America, contains twenty-six states and the federal district of Brasília (the nation's capital). Mostly tropical or semitropical in climate, the nation encompasses dense forests, including the Amazon Basin, as well a semiarid region in the northeast, mountains and plains in the southwest, midwestern savannahs, a long Atlantic coastline, and a vast wetland area.

Inhabited by numerous Amerindian groups, Brazil was first visited by the Portuguese in April 1500. Colonization efforts began in earnest in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with the arrival of European immigrants and the importation of enslaved Africans. Sugarcane (and later cotton and coffee), gold, and diamonds were the major commodities, and by 1807 the colony was both prosperous and ethnically diverse.

With Napoleon's invasion of Portugal in 1807, the prince regent fled to the colony, set up his government there, and expanded trade. Independence was declared in 1822, and after decades of monarchical rule, in 1889 Brazil became a republic. Troubled in its early years by economic and political crises, the nation continued to struggle throughout the twentieth century with questions of national identity and the quashing of freedoms by military dictatorships. A transition to democracy began in 1979 and culminated in popular elections in 1988. Former metalworker and union organizaer Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva--usually known simply as "Lula"--was elected president in 2002 and reelected in 2006.  Lula completed his second term at the end of last year (2010).  His chief of staff, a former Marxist rebel named Dilma Rousseff, launched a successful campaign and since January of 2011, a woman presides over Latin America's largest country and economy.

First watch the following short narrated slide show by yours truly (25 minutes):



Watch the following "60 Minutes" episode (14 minutes) to get familiar with Lula, with Dilma, and with Brazil's emergence as a force to be reckoned with in the 21st century.



Please now watch the following clip about President Dilma Rousseff, from lefty journalist Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now" video podcast (9 minutes).



For an update on Dilma -- how the first 100 days of her presidency have gone -- please read this short article. 

II. Racial Categories and Affirmative Action

To launch our inquiry into racial categories, racial inequality, and affirmative action in Brazil, let me begin with three generalizations about USians:

#1.  By and large, we are comfortable with the category, "race." 

By this I mean that we tend to take for granted that everyone naturally has a race, that is, that human beings naturally occupy race categories.  So, when I am asked to identify my "race" on a survey such as the census, the question isn't strange or vexing to me since I take for granted that people have races, I know what the main race categories are, and I know which one I fit into.  Conversely, when asked to identify the "race" of Denzel Washingon and George Clooney, the answers come forth easily enough:  Denzel is Black/African-American and George is Caucasian/white.

#2.  Identifying a person's "race" signifies more than just skin color.

When I invoke these racial categories, I am referencing more than simply the color of each actor's skin. (And, of course, the skin color of Caucasians isn't white at all; it's pinkish/orange-ish.) That is, the category "race" reaches farther and deeper than mere superficial physical characteristics. To identify someone's race is to say something who they are in some essential way. I am not necessarily talking about racism here; just that as a category, "race" has more-than-merely-descriptive connotations.

#3.  Race is inherited from one's parents and it doesn't change. 

In other words, my status as a "white guy" is fundamentally linked to the race categories my parents fall into (both also "white"). The anthropological term we use for this sort of status category is "ascribed" -- meaning, you can't change it, it's fixed at birth. We don't generally think of race as a "situational" term.



Now, another generalization: In Brazil, generalizations 1-3 above traditionally do not apply. In other words, until fairly recently, most Brazilians wouldn't be comfortable with the question, "What's his race?" This is not to say that Brazilians don't have or don't use vocabulary to refer to physical differences such as skin color. They do!  But, the larger category into which terms like branco (white) and negro ("black") fit isn't raça ("race"); it's cor ("color").

Another major difference in Brazil is that race isn't an ascribed category. To the contrary, the same person might identify as branco in one setting and then moreno (mixed color) in another. Brazilians have virtually dozens of terms that refer to physical differences of the sort that we in the U.S. would think of as "racial." The Brazilian vocabulary for describing "racial" differences is thus both extensive and highly flexible.

You might be asking at this point, if race doesn't exist in Brazil, what about racism? For most of the 20th century, the most common answer to this question was: If there's no race, there can be no racism. Indeed, many of Brazil's major 20th-century intellectuals proudly declared their country a "racial democracy" where racial hybridity and mixing (rather then racial contrast and difference) is what makes Brazil so distinctive, so special. Even today, many a Brazilian will say to you (should you ask about this) that race isn't important, what is important is class. What matters in life is not whether you are black, but whether you are poor.

The problem with this way of thinking, of course, is that if you look around the country, you will see a troubling pattern: Race or no race, poor people in Brazil tend to be darker-skinned. Similarly, people who secure entry into the best universities (and thus get the best jobs) tend to be white.

The reality expressed in the preceding sentence is the basis for Brazil's consideration of affirmative action initiatives (which they call "racial quotas") over the past decade. Read Seth Racusen's corresponding article and then watch the film "Brazil in Black and White" (53 minutes) now to learn about the history behind this controversial initiative and how it's playing out in the handful of Brazilian universities that have implemented affirmative action.


PART 2. Latin America’s Largest Social Movement: The Landless Workers’ Movement (MST)
Associated Readings

1. Tim Padgett, “Brazil’s landless rebels,” Time, January 19 (1998)
2. John Hammond, “Law and disorder: The Brazilian landless farmworkers’ movement,” pp. 469-489 (1999)
3. Wendy Wolford, “This land is ours now: spatial imaginaries and the struggle for land in Brazil.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 94, pp. 409-424 (2004)

Associated Films

1. "Raiz Forte" (“Strong Roots”) (2001, 41 minutes) 

To learn about the MST, read the introductory articles by Padgett and Hammond. Then, consider the questions, What motivates people to join this movement? With this question in mind, read Wendy Wolford's article, which compares the motivations of southern and northeastern Brazilians with respect to reasons for getting involved. Then, watch the amazing film, "Raiz Forte" (Strong Roots) to see what the MST actually looks like "on the ground."