Race and ethnicity in Brazil
Encyclopedia
Studies of race in Brazil
are often brought up as examples showing that the concept of "race" is a social construct, and that what is understood as "race" in one society is not the same that is understood as such in another.
Brazilian society is made up of a confluence of people of several different origins, from the original Indians, with the influx of Portuguese colonizers
, Black African
slaves
, and recent Europe
an, Arab and Japanese immigration. Other significant groups include Koreans
, Chinese
, Paraguayans
and Bolivians.
In the 19th and 20th century Brazilian culture has promoted racial integration
and mixing
. However, race relations in Brazil have not been without turbulence, especially in relation to the disadvantageous role of Black and Native Brazilians, groups severely exploited in the country's colonial past
that tend to occupy least prestigious positions in modern society. The analysis of genetic markers reveals that Brazilians from all regions of the country are racially mixed, and predominantly of European descent – including most people who define themselves as pardo
s and blacks. This is the result of deliberate "racial whitening
" policies pursued by Emperor Pedro II and in the Old Republic, manifested in the selection of white immigrants, under the influence of Gobineau's racialist theories.
settlers and African, mostly Bantu and West African populations(such as the Yoruba
, Ewe
, and Fanti-Ashanti) slaves into a territory originally inhabited by various indigenous populations, mainly Tupi, Guarani and Ge In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in what is known as Great Immigration, new groups arrived, mainly of Portuguese, Italian, Spanish
and German
origin, but also from Japan
, the Middle East
, and Eastern Europe
.
When the Portuguese reached what is now called Brazil in 1500, its native population was probably composed of about 2.5 million Amerindians. Up to 1532, the Portuguese made no real effort to colonise the land, limiting to the establishment of “feitorias” to organise the trade of brazilwood. When it became clear that this policy would result in the land being taken by other European powers – namely the French
and the Dutch
– the Portuguese Crown decided to effectively occupy the territory by fostering agricultural activities – especially sugarcane crops – in Brazil. This resulted not only in the growth of the population of Portuguese origin, but also in the introduction of African slavery
in Brazil.
The population, however, only boosted in the 18th century, as a result of the discovery of gold and diamonds in the region known as Minas Gerais
, which prompted massive populational movements from Portugal – as well as increased slave trafficking – to Brazil.
During the colonial period, the Portuguese prohibited any influx of other Europeans to Brazil. In consequence, the Portuguese and their descendants constituted the overwhelming majority of the White population of colonial Brazil. However, in the Southern Brazilian areas disputed between Portugal and Spain, a genetic study suggests that the predominant genomic ancestry of the Brazilian Gaúcho
s (inhabitants of the Pampa
s) may be Spanish, not Portuguese. Also a small number of Dutch settlers remained in the Northeast after the Portuguese retook Dutch Brazil
and may have contributed to the demographic composition of Northeastern Brazil.
Only in the 19th century, whence the colonial relation between Brazil and Portugal changed and the polity was renamed “United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarves”, was the immigration of non-Portuguese allowed. Even then, however, and even after the country’s independence in 1822, immigration to Brazil was mainly Portuguese, though a significant number of German immigrants settled in the Southern region.
In the mid-century, the crisis of the slave-based production in Brazil prompted the Brazilian elites to find new solutions for the work force needed for the expansion of Brazilian agriculture – especially the growing sector of coffee culture in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
was closely connected to the so-called “questão da mão-de-obra” (workforce question), and planters’ concerns about how to replace the slave workforce; the reasons why the slaves were not simply transformed into free workers are a point of contention. As a result, the Brazilian government sought to attract European immigrants.
Combined with the European demographic crisis, this resulted in the immigration of about 5 million people, mostly European peasants, in the last quarter of the 19th century and first half of the 20th. The majority of these immigrants were either Portuguese or Italian (about 1,500,000 each), though significant numbers of Spaniards - which possibly include Portuguese emigrating from Vigo on false passports - (690,000), Germans (250,000), Japanese (170,000), Middle Easterns (100,000, mostly people from what are now Syria and Lebanon arriving on Turkish passports), and Eastern Europeans (mostly Poles and Ukrainians arriving on Russian passports) also immigrated.
There are few reliable statistics on the Brazilian population before the 1872 census, which counted 9,930,478, of which 3,787,289 Whites, 1,954,452 Blacks, and 4,188,737 pardos. These figures do not yet reflect the influx of the five million immigrants mentioned above, since up to 1872 only about 270,000 immigrants had arrived in Brazil. According to Judicael Clevelário's calculations, the total population of immigrant origin in 1872 would be of about 240,000 people; consequently, the total White population of non-immigrant origin for that year would be of about 3,540,000 people at least.
The White proportion of the population increased rapidly between 1872 and 1940, mainly because of immigration, but also because the growth rate of the Black and parda population, which was very low during slavery, remained below the national average for some time after abolition.
An important, and usually ignored, part of this equation was the political situation in Brazil, during the final crisis of slavery. According to Petrônio Domingues, by 1887 the slave struggles pointed to a real possibility of widespread insurrection. On October 23, in São Paulo, for instance, there were violent confrontations between the police and rioting Blacks, who chanted "long life freedom" and "death to the slaveowners". The president of the province, Rodrigues Alves, reported the situation as following:
Uprisings erupted in Itu, Campinas, Indaiatuba, Amparo, Piracicaba and Capivari; ten thousand fugitive slaves grouped in Santos. Flights were happening in daylight, guns were spotted among the fugitives, who, instead of hiding from police, seemed ready to engage in confrontation.
It was as a response to such events that, on May 13, 1888, slavery was abolished, as a means to restore order and the control of the ruling class, in a situation in which the slave system was almost completely disorganised.
As an abolitionist newspaper, O Rebate, put it, ten years later,
Another factor, also usually neglected, is the fact that, regardless of the racial notions of the Brazilian elite, European populations were emigrating in great numbers - to the United States, to Argentina, to Uruguay - which African populations certainly weren't doing, at that time. In this respect, what was new in "immigration to Brazil" was not the "immigration", but the "to Brazil" part. As Wilson do Nascimento Barbosa puts it,
In Brazil, particularly in São Paulo, the dominant idea was that national workers were unable to develop the country, and that only foreign workers would be able to work in a regime of "free" (i.e., wage) labour. The goal was to "whiten" Brazil through new immigrants and through future miscegenation in which former slaves would disappear by becoming “whiter”.
In 1878, ten years before the abolition of slavery, Rio de Janeiro
hosted the Congresso Agrícola (Agricultural Congress) and that meeting reflected what the Brazilian elite (especially coffee
planters) expected from their future workers. Although national workers were an option to some of the participants, especially to those not from São Paulo, most of them, under the lead of coffee planters from São Paulo, agreed that only immigration would be good to Brazil, and, moreover, European immigration. The Congresso Agrícola showed that the elite was convinced that Europeans were racially and culturally superior to other “races”.
Although discussions were situated in a theoretical field, immigrants arrived and colonies were founded through all this period (the rule of Pedro II), especially from 1850 on, particularly in the Southeast
and Southern Brazil.
These discussions culminated in the Decree 528 in 1890, signed by Brazil's first President Deodoro da Fonseca
, which opened the national harbors to immigration except for Africans and Asians. This decree remained valid until October 5, 1892 when, due to pressures of coffee planters interested in cheap manpower, it was overturned by Law 97.
As a result of those discussions and policies, Brazil experienced immigration mostly from countries such as Italy
, Germany
, Spain
, Portugal
and Poland
during the end of the empire and the beginning of the republic period (late 19th and early 20th century). Later immigration, from 1908 on, was not so much influenced by that race discussions and Brazil attracted, besides Europeans, more immigrants from Lebanon
, Syria
and Japan
, for example.
According to Oliveira Vianna, the blond Portuguese of Germanic origin were "restless and migratory", and that's why they emigrated to Brazil. On the other hand, the Portuguese of darker complexions were of Celtic or Iberian
origin and came when the Portuguese settlement in Brazil was already well established, because, according to him, "The peninsular brachyoids, of Celtic race, or the dolicoides, of Iberian
race, of sedentary habits and peaceful nature, did not have, of course, that mobility nor that bellicosity nor that spirit of adventure and conquest".
The text reported the different levels of intelligence
found among blacks and highlights the existence of "lazy blacks" (Gêgis and Angolans) or "laborious blacks" (Timinins, Minas, Dahomeyanos) and also the existence of "peaceful and obedient blacks" and of "rebels and fierce" ones. Vianna also compares the "morality" and intellectual level found among blacks and reports that Gêgis, Krumanos and Cabindas revealed the "mental inferiority, typical from the lowest types of the black race".
published his famous book Casa-Grande & Senzala
(The Masters and the Slaves). The book appeared in a moment that it there was a widespread belief, among social scientists, that some races were superior to other ones and in the same period of the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany
. Freyre's work was very important to change the mentality, especially of the white Brazilian elite, who considered the Brazilian people as "inferior" because of their African and Amerindian ancestry. In this book, Freyre refuted the idea that Brazil would have an "inferior race" because of the race-mixing.
Then, he pointed the positive elements that permeate the Brazilian cultural formation because of miscegenation (especially between Portuguese, Indians and blacks). Freyre's book has changed the mentality in Brazil, and the mixing of races, then, became a reason to be a national pride. However, Freyre's book created the Brazilian myth of the Racial democracy
, so that Brazil was a "post-racial" country without racism. This theory was later challenged by several anthropologists who claim that, despite the race-mixing, the "white" Brazilian population still occupies the top of the Brazilian society, while Blacks, Indians and mixed-race people are largely found in the poor population.
, after he published Casa Grande & Senzala, became an eternal source of explanation. He repeated several times that he did not create the myth of a racial democracy and that the fact that his books recognized the intense mixing between "races" in Brazil did not mean a lack of prejudice or discrimination. He pointed out that many people have claimed the United States
to have been an "exemplary democracy" whereas slavery
and racial segregation
were present throughout most of the history of the United States
.
"The interpretation of those who want to place me among the sociologists or anthropologists who said prejudice of race among the Portuguese or the Brazilians never existed is extreme. What I have always suggested is that such prejudice is minimal (...) when compared to that which is still in place elsewhere, where laws still regulate relations between Europeans and other groups".
"It is not that racial prejudice or social prejudice related to complexion are absent in Brazil. They exist. But no one here would have thought of "white-only" Churches. No one in Brazil would have thought of laws against interracial marriage (...) Fraternal spirit is stronger among Brazilians than racial prejudice, colour, class or religion. It is true that equality has not been reached since the end of slavery (...) There was racial prejudice among plantation owners, there was social distance between the masters and the slaves, between whites and blacks (...) But few wealthy Brazilians were as concerned with racial purity as the majority were in the Old South
".
During the colonial period, discriminatory laws were commonplace. Non-Whites were banned from the goldsmith craft (1621). In São Paulo, non-Whites were forbidden, under the penalty of prison, from using guns (1713). Descendants of Jews, Moors, Blacks, as well as those married to women of such extractions, were banned from public offices (1671). Blacks and mulattos were forbidden from "dressing as Whites" (1745). The arrival of the Royal family didn't change this: when a provincial militia was formed in Rio Grande do Sul, it was established that the members should be "White", this being defined as "those whose grand-grandparents were not Black, and whose parents were free-born" (1809). Nor did this change with independence: a complementary law to the 1824 Constitution forbade "Blacks and lepers" from being instructed in schools. Brazilian troops were segregated until the fall of the Empire.
On July 28, 1921, representatives Andrade Bezerra and Cincinato Braga proposed a law whose Article 1 provided: "It is prohibited in Brazil immigration of individuals from the black race." On October 22, 1923, representative Fidélis Reis produced another project of law on the entry of immigrants, whose fifth article was as follows: It is prohibited the entry of settlers from the black race in Brazil and, to Asians, it will be allowed each year, a number equal to 5% of those existing in the country.(...)'. Both bills were decried as racist and rejected by the Brazilian Congress.
In 1945, the Brazilian government issued a decree favoring the entrance of Europe
an immigrants in the country: "In the admission of immigrants, the need to preserve and develop, in the ethnic composition of the population, the more convenient features of their European ancestry shall be considered".
in Brazil has been very high, as Brazil was colonized by male Portuguese adventurers who tended to procreate with Amerindian and African women. This made possible a myth of "racial democracy" that tends to obscure a widespread discrimination connected to certain aspects of physical appearance: aspects related to the concept of cor (literally "colour"), used in a way that is roughly equivalent to the English term "race" but based on a combination of skin colour, hair type, and shape of nose and lips. It is possible for siblings to belong to different "colour" categories. So a "White" Brazilian is a person perceived and socially accepted as "White", regardless of ancestry or sometimes even immediate family.
While miscegenation has been one factor leading to a Brazilian population with features ranging from the stereotypically African to the stereotypically European, a second has been "assortative mating". The genome of the first generation offspring of European fathers and African mothers was 50% European and 50% African, but the distribution of the genes that affect relevant features (skin colour, hair type, lip shape, nose shape) was random. Those of the second generation with features considered closer to a "White" stereotype would have tended to procreate with others like themselves, while those considered closer to "Black" would also have tended to procreate among themselves; in the long term producing "White" and "Black" groups with surprisingly similar proportions of European and African ancestry.
Miscegenation has also been intense between immigrants and their descendants and the previous inhabitants of the country.
The following are the results for the different Brazilian censuses, since 1872:
The 1900, 1920, and 1970 censuses did not count people for "race".
In the 1872 census, people were counted based on self-declaration, except for slaves, who were classified by their owners.
The 1872 and 1890 censuses counted "caboclos" (White-Amerindian mixed race people) apart. In the 1890 census, the category "pardo" was replaced with "mestiço". Figures for 1890 are available at the IBGE site.
In the 1940 Census, people were asked for their "colour or race"; if the answer was not "White", "Black", or "Yellow", interviewers were instructed to fill the "colour or race" box with a slash. These slashs were later summed up in the category "pardo". In practice this means answers such as "pardo", "moreno", "mulato", "caboclo", etc.
In the 1950 Census, the category "pardo" was included on its own. Amerindians were counted as "pardos".
The 1960 Census adopted a similar system, again explicitly including Amerindians as "pardos".
According to the 2008 PNAD, the Brazilian population is composed by:
children of a mixed union and themselves automatically assigned to the inferior group - here the blacks, and only them. In Brazil, racial identity is defined by reference to a continuum of `colour', that is, by use of a flexible or fuzzy principle which, taking account of physical traits such as skin colour, the texture of hair, and the shape of lips and nose, and of class position (notably income and education), generates a large number of intermediate and partly overlapping categories (over a hundred of them were recorded by the 1980 Census) and does not entail radical ostracization or a stigmatization without recourse or remedy. Evidence for this is provided by the segregation indices sported by Brazilian cities, strikingly lower than those for US metropolitan areas, and the virtual absence of the two typically US forms of ethnoracial violence: lynching and urban rioting (see Telles, 1995; Reid, 1992). Quite the opposite in the USA where there exists no socially and legally recognized category of 'métis' (people of mixed-race) (Davis, 1991; Williamson, 1980). In this case we are faced with a division that is closer to that between definitively defined and delimited castes (proof is the exceptionally low rate of intermarriage: fewer than 2 percent of African-
American women contract `mixed' unions, as against about half of the women of Latino or Asian origin): a caste division that one strives to conceal by submerging it within the universe of differentiating visions `revisioned' through US lenses by means of `globalization'. How are we to account for the fact that 'theories' of 'race relations' which are but thinly conceptualized transfigurations, endlessly refurbished and updated to suit current concerns, of the most commonly used racial stereotypes that are themselves only primary justifications of the domination of whites over blacks in one society, could be tacitly (and sometimes
explicitly) raised to the status of universal standard whereby every situation of ethnic domination must be analysed and measured?The fact that this racial (or racist) sociodicy was able to `globalize' itself over the recent period, thereby losing its outer characteristics of legitimating discourse for domestic or local usage, is undoubtedly one of the most striking proofs of the
symbolic dominion and influence exercised by the USA over every kind scholarly and, especially, semi-scholarly production, notably through the power of consecration they possess and through the material and symbolic profits that researchers in the dominated countries reap from a more or less assumed or ashamed adherence to the model derived from the USA.
But all these mechanisms which have the effect of facilitating the actual `globalization' of American problems, thereby verifying the Americano-centric belief in `globalization' understood, quite simply, as the Americanization of the Western world and, through outward expansion, of the entire universe, these mechanisms are not enough to explain the tendency of the American worldview, scholarly or semi-scholarly, to impose itself as a universal point of view, especially when it comes to issues, such as that of 'race', where the particularity of the American situation is particularly flagrant and particularly far from being exemplary.
One would obviously need to invoke here also the driving role played by the major American philanthropic and research foundations in the diffusion of the US racial doxa within the Brazilian academic field at the level of both representations
and practices. Thus, the Rockefeller Foundation and similar organizations fund a programme on `Race and Ethnicity' at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro as well as the Centre for Afro-Asiatic Studies of the Candido Mendes University (and its journal Estudos Afro-Asiaticos) so as to encourage exchanges of researchers and students. But the intellectual current flows in one direction only. And, as a condition for its aid, the Rockefeller Foundation requires that research teams meet US criteria of `affirmative action', which poses insuperable problems since, as we have seen, the application of the white/black dichotomy in Brazilian society is, to say the least, hazardous. Alongside the role of philanthropic foundations, we must finally include the internationalization of academic publishing among the factors that have contributed to the diffusion of `US thought' in the social sciences. The growing integration of the publishing of English-language academicbooks (nowadays sold, often by the same houses, in the USA, in the different countries of the former British Commonwealth, but also in the smaller, polyglot, nations of the European Union such as Sweden and the Netherlands, and in the societies most directly exposed to American cultural domination) and the erosion of the boundary between academic and trade publishing have helped encourage the putting into circulation of terms, themes and tropes with strong (real or hoped for) market appeal which, in turn, owe their power of attraction simply to the fact of their very wide diffusion. For example, Basil Blackwell, the large, half-commercial and half-academic publishing house (what the Anglo-Saxons call a `crossover press'), does not hesitate to impose titles on its authors which are in accord with this new planetary common sense which it contributes to forging under the guise of echoing it".Pierre Bourdieu
and Loïc Wacquant
According to the American scholar Edward Telles, in Brazil there are three different systems related to "racial classification" along the White-Black continuous. The first is the Census System, which distinguishes three categories: "branco" (White), "pardo", and "preto" (Black). The second is the popular system that uses many different categories, including the ambiguous term "moreno" (literally, "tanned", "brunette", or "with an olive complexion"). The third is the Black movement system that distinguishes only two categories, summing up "pardos" and "pretos" as "negros". More recently, the term "afrodescendente" has been brought into use.
The first system referred by Telles is that of the IBGE. In the census, respondents choose their race or color in five categories: branca (white), parda (brown), preta (black), amarela (yellow) or indígena (indigenous). The term "parda" needs further explanation; it has been systematically used since the census of 1940. People were then asked for their "colour or race"; if the answer was not "White", "Black", or "Yellow", interviewers were instructed to fill the "colour or race" box with a slash. These slashes were later summed up in the category "pardo". In practice this means answers such as "pardo", "moreno", "mulato", and "caboclo". In the following censuses, "pardo" became a category on its own, and included Amerindians, which became a separate category only in 1991. So it is a term that describes people who have a skin darker than Whites and lighter than Blacks, but not necessarily implies a White-Black mixture.
Telles' second system is that of popular classification. Two IBGE surveys (the 1976 PNAD and the July 1998 PME) have sought to understand the way Brazilians think of themselves in "racial" terms, with the explicit aim of adjusting the census classification (neither, however, resulted in actual changes in the census). Besides that, Data Folha has also conducted research on this subject. The results of these surveys are somewhat varied, but seem to coincide in some fundamental aspects. First, there is an enormous variety of "racial" terms in use in Brazil; when Brazilians are inquired in an open ended question, from 135 to 500 different race-color terms may be brought. The 1976 PNAD found 136 different answers to the question about race; the July 1998 PME found 143. However, most of these terms are used by very small minorities. Telles remarks that 95% of the population chose only six different terms (branco, moreno, pardo, moreno-claro, preto and negro); Petrucelli shows that the 7 most common responses (the above plus amarela) sum up 97%, and the 10 more common (the previous plus mulata, clara, and morena-escura) make 99%.
Petrucelli, analysing the July 98 PME, finds that 77 denominations were mentioned by only one person in the sample. Other 12 are misunderstandings, referring to national or regional origin (francesa, italiana, baiana, cearense). Many of the "racial" terms are (or could be) remarks about the relation between skin colour and exposure to sun (amorenada, bem morena, branca-morena, branca-queimada, corada, bronzeada, meio morena, morena-bronzeada, morena-trigueira, morenada, morenão, moreninha, pouco morena, queimada, queimada de sol, tostada, rosa queimada, tostada). Others are clearly variations of the same idea (preto, negro, escuro, crioulo, retinto, for Black, alva, clara, cor-de-leite, galega, rosa, rosada, pálida, for White, parda, mulata, mestiça, mista, for "parda"), or precisions of the same concept (branca morena, branca clara), and can actually grouped together with one of the main racial terms without falsifying the interpretation. Some seem to express an outright refusal of classification: azul-marinho (navy blue), azul (blue), verde (green), cor-de-burro-quando-foge (literally, "the color of a donkey when it runs away", a Portuguese
humorous term for an undefined color).
Petrucelli grouped those 136 terms into 28 wider categories. Most of these 28 wider categories can be situated in the White-Black continuum when the answers to the open-ended question are compared to the answers in the IBGE format:
The other categories, except, naturally, for "amarela" (Yellow) seem related to Amerindian "race":
The remarkable difference of the popular system is the use of the term "moreno". This is actually difficult to translate into English, and carries a few different meanings. Derived from Latin maurus, meaning inhabitant of Mauritania, traditionally it is used as a term to distinguish White people with dark hair, as opposed to "ruivo" (redhead) and "loiro" (blonde). It is also commonly used as a term for people with an olive complexion
, a characteristic that is often found in connection with dark hair. In connection to this, it is used as a term for suntanned people, and is commonly opposed to "pálido" (pale) and "amarelo" (yellow), which in this case refer to people who aren't frequently exposed to sun. Finally, it is also often used as a euphemism for "pardo" and "preto".
Finally, the Black movement system, in direct opposition to the popular system, groups "pardos" and "pretos" in a single category, "negro" (and not Afro-Brazilian). This looks more similar to the American racial perception, but there are some subtle differences. First, as other Brazilians, the Black movement understands that not everybody with some African descent is Black, and that many or most White Brazilians indeed have African (or Amerindian, or both) ancestrals - so an "one drop rule" isn't what the Black movement envisages; second, the main issue for the Black movement isn't "cultural", but rather economic: it is not a supposed cultural identification with Africa, but rather a situation of disavantage, common to those who are non-White (with the exception of those of East Asian ancestry) that groups them into a "negro" category.
However, some studies, focusing in the difference between self- and alter-classification show that this phenomenon is far more complex than "money whitens". For instance, according to a study conducted by Paula Miranda-Ribeiro and André Junqueira Caetano among women in Recife, while there is significant inconsistency between the "parda" and "preta" categories, most women are consistently classified by themselves and interviewers into "brancas" and non-brancas. 21,97% of women were consistently classified as White, and 55.13% of women were consistently classified as non-White, while 22.89% of women where inconsistently classified. But the inconsistently classified women reveal an important aspect of economic "whitening". "Self-darkening" women, i.e., those who view themselves as "pretas" or "pardas" but are classified as "brancas" by the interviewers (4.08% of women) have above average education, while the 18.82% "self-whitening" women have a low average education, lower indeed than that of consistently non-White women.
This, assuming, that there is a correlation between wealth and education, would show that, rather than "Brazilians from the wealthier classes with darker phenotypes seeing themselves and being seen by others in lighter categories", either wealth affects their perception by others, but does not affect, or at least affects considerably less, their self-perception, or that wealth in fact affects their self-perception in the opposite way: it is poor people who are more prone to self-whitening. This, naturally, contributes to show that self-classification in censuses is in fact more objective than alter-classification; but most importantly, it shows that economic differences between Whites and non-Whites effectively exist.
It is important to notice that the alter-classification in this survey was made by a group of college students, i.e., mostly middle class people.
There are important differences in social position concerning "races". These differences encompass income, education, housing, etc. According to the 2007 PNAD, White workers wages were almost twice those of Blacks and “pardos”. Blacks and “pardos” earned on average 1.8 minimum wages, while Whites averaged 3.4 minimum wages. These differences cannot be exclusively attributed to differences in education: among workers with over 12 years of study, Whites earned on average R$15.90 per hour, while Blacks and “pardos” made R$11.40.
Among the 1% wealthiest Brazilians, only 12% were Blacks or “pardos”, while Whites made 86.3% of the group. Among the 10% poorest 73.9% were Black or “pardos”, and 25.5% of whites.
13.4% of White Brazilians were graduated, compared to 4% of Blacks and “pardos”. 24.2% of Whites were studying in a college or university, compared to 8.4% of Blacks and “pardos”. In 2007, 57.9% of White students between 18 and 24 years old were attending one. However, only 25.4% of Black and “pardo” students of the same age group studied at the same level. In 2000, the illiteracy rate among White people over 5 years old was 10.87%; among Blacks, 23,23%, and among “pardos”, 21,09%.
13.4% of white Brazilians were graduated, compared to 4% of blacks and brown. 24.2% of whites were studying in a College
or University
, compared to 8.4% of blacks and brown. In 2007, 57.9% of white students between 18 and 24 years old were attending a University or a College. However, only 25.4% of black and brown students of the same age group studied at the same level. Of just over 14 million illiterates in Brazil, nearly 9 million were black or pardo. The illiteracy rate among white people over 15 years old was 6.1%. Among blacks and brown of the same age group over 14%.
Almost half of the Brazilian population (49.4%) is white. The brown form 42.3%, the black 7.4%, and the indigenous or "yellow", according to the IBGE, only 0.8%. The region with the highest proportion of brown is the north, with 68.3%. The population of the Northeast is composed of 8.5% of blacks, the largest proportion. In the South, 78.7% of the population is white.
According to a genetic study about Brazilians, on the paternal side, 98% of the White Brazilian Y Chromosome
comes from a European male ancestor, only 2% from an African ancestor and there is a complete absence of Amerindian contributions. On the maternal side, 39% have a European Mitochondrial DNA
, 33% Amerindian and 28% African MtDNA. This analysis only shows a small fraction of a person's ancestry (the Y Chromosome comes from a single male ancestor and the mtDNA from a single female ancestor, while the contributions of the many other ancestors is not specified)., but it shows that miscigenation in Brazil was directional, between Portuguese males and African and Amerindian females.
Analyzing Black Brazilians' Y chromosome
, which comes from male
ancestors through paternal line, it was concluded that half (50%) of the Black Brazilian population has at least one male ancestor who came from Europe
, 48% has at least one male ancestor who came from Africa
and 1.6% has at least one male ancestor who was Native American
. Analyzing their mitochondrial DNA
, that comes from female
ancestors though maternal line, 85% of them have at least a female ancestor who came from Africa
, 12.5% have at least a female ancestor who was Native Brazilian and only 2.5% have at least a female ancestor who came from Europe
.
As for the complete genetic ancestry of Brazilians, research has shown that it is predominantly European, even among non-White Brazilians. According to another study (autosomal DNA) conducted on a school in the poor periphery of Rio de Janeiro the "pardos" there were found to be on average over 80% European, and the "whites" (who thought of themselves as "very mixed") were found out to carry very little Amerindian and/or African admixtures. "The results of the tests of genomic ancestry are quite different from the self made estimates of European ancestry", say the researchers. In general, the test results showed that European ancestry is far more important than the students thought it would be. The "pardos" for example thought of themselves as 1/3 European, 1/3 African and 1/3 Amerindian before the tests, and yet their ancestry was determined to be at over 80% European.
Another autosomal DNA study, from 2010, also focused on the autosomal contribution (which is about the sum of the ancestors of each individual, the overall picture), found out that almost 80% of the Brazilian genes are of European origin in all regions except in the South where it stands for 90% of them (regardless of census classification). "Ancestry informative SNPs can be useful to estimate individual and population biogeographical ancestry. Brazilian population is characterized by a genetic background of three parental populations (European, African, and Brazilian Native Amerindians) with a wide degree and diverse patterns of admixture. In this work we analyzed the information content of 28 ancestry-informative SNPs into multiplexed panels using three parental population sources (African, Amerindian, and European) to infer the genetic admixture in an urban sample of the five Brazilian geopolitical regions. The SNPs assigned apart the parental populations from each other and thus can be applied for ancestry estimation in a three hybrid admixed population. Data was used to infer genetic ancestry in Brazilians with an admixture model. Pairwise estimates of F(st) among the five Brazilian geopolitical regions suggested little genetic differentiation only between the South and the remaining regions. Estimates of ancestry results are consistent with the heterogeneous genetic profile of Brazilian population, with a major contribution of European ancestry (0.771) followed by African (0.143) and Amerindian contributions (0.085). The described multiplexed SNP panels can be useful tool for bioanthropological studies but it can be mainly valuable to control for spurious results in genetic association studies in admixed populations." The samples came from free of charge paternity test takers, thus as the researchers made it explicit: "the paternity tests were free of charge, the population samples involved people of variable socioeconomic strata, although likely to be leaning slightly towards the ‘‘pardo’’ group".
According to another different study (also autosomal DNA from 2009), European ancestry predominates in the Brazilian population. The Brazilians as a whole, from all regions, and of all complexions, would lie more closely to the European group than to the African populations or to the Mestizos from Mexico, from the genetical point of view. This shows that the genotypes of individuals in a miscigenated population does not necessarily match their phenotype.
According to another autosomal DNA study from 2008, by the University of Brasília (UnB), European ancestry dominates in the whole of Brazil (in all regions), accounting for 65,90% of heritage of the population, followed by the African contribution (24,80%) and the Native American (9,3%).
An autosomal study from 2011 (with nearly almost 1000 samples from all over the country) has also concluded that European ancestry is the predominant ancestry in Brazil, accounting for nearly 70% of the ancestry of the population: "We estimated individually the European, African and Amerindian ancestry components of 934 self-categorized White, Brown or Black Brazilians from the four most populous regions of the Country. We unraveled great ancestral diversity between and within the different regions [...] In all regions studied, the European ancestry was predominant, with proportions ranging from 60.6% in the Northeast to 77.7% in the South [...] In all regions studied the European ancestry surfaced as uniformly preponderant, with proportions of 69.7%, 60.6%, 73.7% and 77.7%, respectively".
According to an often quoted autosomal DNA study (from 2003) focused on the composition of the Brazilian population as a whole, "European contribution [...] is highest in the South (81% to 82%), and lowest in the North (68% to 71%). The African component is lowest in the South (11%), while the highest values are found in the Southeast (18%-20%). Extreme values for the Amerindian fraction were found in the South and Southeast (7%-8%) and North (17%-18%)". The researchers noted the possibility that these conclusions could be skewed because they mostly come from economically well-to-do individuals who have registered for paternity tests. ""But an alternative explanation is that since the bulk of our sample is composed of individuals who could pay for paternity determinations, it may reflect the marked socioeconomic differentials that exist among people of different ethnic extraction in Brazil. Results of the last (year 2000) census of the Brazilian population showed marked economic differences associated with ethnic/color classification. The average monthly income of people self-defined as ‘‘black or brown’’ is about 60.0% (South region) to 51.3% (Southeast) of the amount reported by self-classified ‘‘white’’ persons. Thus, people in a better economic condition are mostly of European extraction, thus at least partly explaining the different proportions observed here and in other samples".
Several other studies have suggested that European ancestry is the main component in all Brazilian regions. A study from 2002 quoted previous and older studies (28. Salzano F M. Interciêência. 1997;22:221––227. 29. Santos S E B, Guerreiro J F. Braz J Genet. 1995;18:311––315. 30. Dornelles C L, Callegari-Jacques S M, Robinson W M, Weimer T A, Franco M H L P, Hickmann A C, Geiger C J, Salzamo F M. Genet Mol Biol. 1999;22:151––161. 31. Krieger H, Morton N E, Mi M P, Azevedo E, Freire-Maia A, Yasuda N. Ann Hum Genet. 1965;29:113––125. [PubMed]), saying that: "Salzano (28, a study from 1997) calculated for the Northeastern population as a whole, 51% European, 36% African, and 13% Amerindian ancestries whereas in the north, Santos and Guerreiro (29, a study from 1995) obtained 47% European, 12% African, and 41% Amerindian descent, and in the southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul, Dornelles et al. (30, a study from 1999) calculated 82% European, 7% African, and 11% Amerindian ancestries.
"The correlation between color and genomic ancestry is imperfect: at the individual level one cannot safely predict the skin color of a person from his/her level of European, African and Amerindian ancestry nor the opposite. Regardless of their skin color, the overwhelming majority of Brazilians have a high degree of European ancestry. Also, regardless of their skin color, the overwhelming majority of Brazilians have a significant degree of African ancestry. Finally, most Brazilians have a significant and very uniform degree of Amerindian ancestry! The high ancestral variability observed in Whites and Blacks suggests that each Brazilian has a singular and quite individual proportion of European, African and Amerindian ancestry in his/her mosaic genomes".
Brazil's racial base are its colonial-era population, consisting of Amerindians, Portuguese settlers, and African slaves:
ers. However, the biggest part of the immigrants was sent to Southeast Brazil
to work in the coffee
plantation
s. The immigrants sent to Southern Brazil were mainly Germans
(starting in 1824, mainly from Rhineland-Palatinate
, the others from Pomerania
, Hamburg
, Westphalia
, etc.) and Italians (starting in 1875, mainly from the Veneto
and Lombardia). In Southeastern Brazil, most of the immigrants were Italians (mainly from the Veneto
, Campania
, Calabria
and Lombardia), Portuguese (mainly from Beira Alta
, Minho
and Alto Trás-os-Montes
), Spaniards (mainly from Galicia and Andalusia
) and smaller numbers of French
(most came from the southern regions) and Dutch
(from the Netherlands
and Belgium
).
Notably, the first half of the 20th century saw a large inflow of Japanese
(mainly from Honshū
, Hokkaidō
and Okinawa) and Arab
(from Lebanon
and Syria
) immigrants.
, with a smaller European and African influence. In Northeastern Brazil, the main contribution was of Africans, with a smaller European and Amerindian influence. The Southeastern region of Brazil had a more balanced ratio of European, African and Amerindian admixture.
The Census of 2007 revealed that the self-reported White population had its higher proportion in the state of Santa Catarina (86.6%) and the lowest in Bahia (20.9%). The Pardo (brown) proportion was higher in Amazonas (72.4%) and lower in Santa Catarina (9.4%). The Black proportion varied from 15.7% in Bahia to 2.4% in Amazonas. Because of their small number, the Amerindian and Asian population were counted together and they had a higher proportion in Mato Grosso and Roraima (2.3%) and a lower proportion in Paraíba (0.1%).
The region what is now Southern Brazil was originally inhabited by Amerindian
peoples, mostly Pampeano
, Guarani and Kaingang
s.
In the early 18th century, only a few settlers from São Paulo
were living there. This situation made the region vulnerable to attacks from neighboring countries. This fact forced the King of Portugal
to decide to populate the region. For this, settlers of the Portuguese Azores
islands were sent to the coast. To stimulate the immigration to Brazil, the king offered several benefits for the Azorean couples. Between 1748 and 1756, six thousand Azoreans moved to the coast of Santa Catarina
. They were mainly newly married who were seeking a better life. At that time, the Azores were one of the poorest regions of Portugal. They established themselves mainly in the Santa Catarina Island, nowadays the region of Biguaçu. Later, some couples moved to Rio Grande do Sul
, where they established Porto Alegre
, the capital. The Azoreans lived on fishing and agriculture, especially flour
. They composed over half of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina's population in the late 18th century.
The state of Paraná
was settled by colonists from São Paulo due to their proximity (Paraná was part of São Paulo until the mid-19th century).
Black slaves were massively introduced into Rio Grande do Sul due to the development of jerky production, around 1780. By 1822, they have been reported as being 50% of Rio Grande do Sul's population; but this is most certainly an exaggeration. This number decreased to 25% in 1858 and to only 5.2% in 2005. Most of them were bought from Angola
, though this doesn't necessarily means that they were originally inhabitants of that region.
After independence from Portugal (1822) the Brazilian government started to stimulate the arrival of a new wave of immigrants to settle the South. In 1824 they established São Leopoldo
, a German
community. Major Schaeffer, a German who was living in Brazil, was sent to Germany in order to bring immigrants. From Rhineland-Palatinate
, the Major brought the immigrants and soldiers. Settlers from Germany
were brought to work as small farmer
s, because there were many land holdings without workers. To attract the immigrants, the Brazilian government had promised large tracts of land, where they could settle with their families and colonize the region. The first years were not easy. Many Germans died of tropical disease, while others left the colonies to find better living conditions. The German colony of São Leopoldo was a disaster. Nevertheless, in the following years, a further 4,830 Germans arrived at São Leopoldo, and then the colony started to develop, with the immigrants establishing the town of Novo Hamburgo
(New Hamburg). From São Leopoldo and Novo Hamburgo, the German immigrants spread into others areas of Rio Grande do Sul
, mainly close to sources of rivers. The whole region of Vale dos Sinos was populated by Germans. During the 1830s and part of the 1840s German immigration to Brazil was interrupted due to conflicts in the country (War of the Farrapos). The immigration restarted after 1845 with the creation of new colonies. The most important ones were Blumenau
, in 1850, and Joinville
in 1851, both in Santa Catarina state
; these attracted thousands of German immigrants to the region.
In the next five decades, other 28 thousand Germans were brought to Rio Grande do Sul to work as small farmers in the countryside. Until 1914, it is estimated that 50 thousand Germans settled in this state.
Another immigration boom to this region started in 1875. Communities with Italian immigrants were also created in southern Brazil. The first colonies to be populated by Italians were created in the highlands of Rio Grande do Sul (Serra Gaúcha
). These were Garibaldi
and Bento Gonçalves
. These immigrants were predominantly from Veneto
, in northern Italy
. After five years, in 1880, the great numbers of Italian immigrants arriving caused the Brazilian government to create another Italian colony, Caxias do Sul
. After initially settling in the government-promoted colonies, many of the Italian immigrants spread themselves into other areas of Rio Grande do Sul
seeking further opportunities. They created many other Italian colonies on their own, mainly in highlands, because the lowlands were already populated by Germans and native gaúchos. The Italian established many vineyards in the region. Nowadays, the wine produced in these areas of Italian colonization in southern Brazil is much appreciated within the country, though little is available for export. In 1875, the first Italian colonies were established in Santa Catarina
, which lies immediately to the north of Rio Grande do Sul. The colonies gave rise to towns such as Criciúma
, and later also spread further north, to Paraná
.
A significant number of Poles
have settled in Southern Brazil. The first immigrants arrived in 1869. From 1872 to 1959, 110,243 "Russian" citizens entered Brazil. In fact, the majority of them were Poles, since Poland was under Russian rule until 1917, and ethnic Poles immigrated with Russian passport
s.
Southeast Brazil is home to the oldest Portuguese settlement in the Americas
, São Vicente, São Paulo
, established in 1532. The region, since the beginning of its colonization, is a melting pot
of Whites, Indians and Blacks. The Amerindians of the region were enslaved by the Portuguese. The race mixing between the Indian females and their White masters produced the Bandeirante, the colonial inhabitant of São Paulo
, who formed expeditions that crossed the interior of Brazil and greatly increased the Portuguese colonial territory.
In the late 17th century the Bandeirantes found gold
in the area that nowadays is Minas Gerais
. A gold rush
took place in Brazil, and hundreds of thousands of Portuguese colonists arrived during this period. The confrontation between the Bandeirantes and the Portuguese for obtaining possession of the mines led to the Emboabas' War
. The Portuguese won the war. The Amerindian culture declined, giving space to a stronger Portuguese cultural domination. In order to control the wealth, the Portuguese Crown moved the capital of Brazil from Salvador, Bahia
to Rio de Janeiro
. Thousands of African slaves were brought to work in the gold mines. They were landed in Rio de Janeiro and sent to other regions. No other place in the world had so many slaves, since the end of the Roman Empire
. In 1808 the Portuguese Royal Family, fleeing from Napoleon, took charge in Rio de Janeiro. Some 15 thousand Portuguese nobles moved to Brazil. The region changed a lot, becoming more European.
In the last quarter of the 20th century, a huge wave of immigration came to Southeastern Brazil, attracted by the government to replace the African slaves in the coffee
plantations. Most immigrants landed in the Port of Santos
and were forwarded to coffee farms within São Paulo. The vast majority of the immigrants came from Italy
. Brazil attracted nearly 5 million immigrants between 1870 and 1953. The large amounts of Italians are visible in many parts of Southeast Brazil. Their descendants are nowadays predominant in may areas.
The arrival of immigrants from several places of Europe, the Middle East
and Asia
produced an ethnically diverse population. The city of São Paulo is home to the largest population of Japanese origin outside of Japan
itself.
The Portuguese settlers rarely brought women, which led to relationships with the Indian women. Later, interracial relationships occurred between Portuguese males and African females. The coast, in the past the place of arrival of millions of Black slaves from Angola
, Nigeria
and Benin
to work in the plantations of sugar-cane, nowadays has a predominance of Mulatto
es. Salvador, Bahia
is considered the largest Black city outside of Africa, with over 80% of its inhabitants being African-Brazilians
. In the hinterland, there is a predominance of Indian and White mixture.
, is the Brazilian region with the largest Amerindian cultural influence and demographic presence. Inhabited by diverse indigenous tribes, this part of Brazil was reached by Portuguese colonists in the 17th century, but it started to be populated by non-Indians only in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The exploitation of rubber
used in the growing automobile industry, caused a huge migration to the region. Many people from the Northeastern Brazil, mostly Ceará
, moved to the Amazon area. The contact between the Indians and the northeastern rubbers created the base of the ethnic composition of the region, with its mixed-race majority.
, the new capital of Brazil, in 1960. Many workers were attracted to the region, mostly from northeastern Brazil.
A new migratory movement started arriving from the 1970s. With the mechanization of agriculture in the South of Brazil, rural workers of that region, many of them of German and Italian
origin migrated to the Central-West Brazil.
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
are often brought up as examples showing that the concept of "race" is a social construct, and that what is understood as "race" in one society is not the same that is understood as such in another.
Brazilian society is made up of a confluence of people of several different origins, from the original Indians, with the influx of Portuguese colonizers
Portuguese Empire
The Portuguese Empire , also known as the Portuguese Overseas Empire or the Portuguese Colonial Empire , was the first global empire in history...
, Black African
Afro-Brazilian
In Brazil, the term "preto" is one of the five categories used by the Brazilian Census, along with "branco" , "pardo" , "amarelo" and "indígena"...
slaves
Slavery in Brazil
Slavery in Brazil shaped the country's social structure and ethnic landscape. During the colonial epoch and for over six decades after the 1822 independence, slavery was a mainstay of the Brazilian economy, especially in mining, cotton, and sugar cane production.Brazil obtained an estimated 35% of...
, and recent Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an, Arab and Japanese immigration. Other significant groups include Koreans
Korean Brazilian
Korean Brazilian is a Brazilian person of full, partial, or predominantly Korean ancestry, or a Korean-born person residing in Brazil. The Korean population in Brazil, the largest in Latin America, is about 50,000.-History:...
, Chinese
Chinese Brazilian
Chinese Brazilians are people of Chinese ancestry who were born in or have immigrated to Brazil. The Chinese Brazilian population was estimated to be approximately 151,649....
, Paraguayans
Paraguayan Brazilian
Paraguayan Brazilian is a Brazilian person of full, partial, or predominantly Paraguayan ancestry, or a Paraguayan-born person residing in Brazil....
and Bolivians.
In the 19th and 20th century Brazilian culture has promoted racial integration
Racial integration
Racial integration, or simply integration includes desegregation . In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws on diverse traditions, rather than merely...
and mixing
Miscegenation
Miscegenation is the mixing of different racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, sexual relations, and procreation....
. However, race relations in Brazil have not been without turbulence, especially in relation to the disadvantageous role of Black and Native Brazilians, groups severely exploited in the country's colonial past
Colonial Brazil
In the history of Brazil, Colonial Brazil, officially the Viceroyalty of Brazil comprises the period from 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese, until 1815, when Brazil was elevated to kingdom alongside Portugal as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.During the over 300 years...
that tend to occupy least prestigious positions in modern society. The analysis of genetic markers reveals that Brazilians from all regions of the country are racially mixed, and predominantly of European descent – including most people who define themselves as pardo
Pardo
In Brazil, Pardo is a race/colour category used by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics in Brazilian censuses. It is a Portuguese word that encompasses various shades of brown, but is usually translated as "grayish-brown"...
s and blacks. This is the result of deliberate "racial whitening
Racial whitening
Racial Whitening or "Whitening" is an ideology that was widely accepted in Brazil between 1889 and 1914, as the solution to the "Negro problem." Supporters of the Whitening ideology believed that the Negro race would advance culturally and genetically, or even disappear totally, within several...
" policies pursued by Emperor Pedro II and in the Old Republic, manifested in the selection of white immigrants, under the influence of Gobineau's racialist theories.
Historic background
The Brazilian population was formed by the influx of PortuguesePortuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
settlers and African, mostly Bantu and West African populations(such as the Yoruba
Yoruba people
The Yoruba people are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba language...
, Ewe
Ewe people
The Ewe are a people located in the southeast corner of Ghana, east of the Volta River, in an area now described as the Volta Region, in southern Togo and western Benin...
, and Fanti-Ashanti) slaves into a territory originally inhabited by various indigenous populations, mainly Tupi, Guarani and Ge In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in what is known as Great Immigration, new groups arrived, mainly of Portuguese, Italian, Spanish
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
and German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
origin, but also from Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, and Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
.
When the Portuguese reached what is now called Brazil in 1500, its native population was probably composed of about 2.5 million Amerindians. Up to 1532, the Portuguese made no real effort to colonise the land, limiting to the establishment of “feitorias” to organise the trade of brazilwood. When it became clear that this policy would result in the land being taken by other European powers – namely the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
– the Portuguese Crown decided to effectively occupy the territory by fostering agricultural activities – especially sugarcane crops – in Brazil. This resulted not only in the growth of the population of Portuguese origin, but also in the introduction of African slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
in Brazil.
The population, however, only boosted in the 18th century, as a result of the discovery of gold and diamonds in the region known as Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais is one of the 26 states of Brazil, of which it is the second most populous, the third richest, and the fourth largest in area. Minas Gerais is the Brazilian state with the largest number of Presidents of Brazil, the current one, Dilma Rousseff, being one of them. The capital is the...
, which prompted massive populational movements from Portugal – as well as increased slave trafficking – to Brazil.
During the colonial period, the Portuguese prohibited any influx of other Europeans to Brazil. In consequence, the Portuguese and their descendants constituted the overwhelming majority of the White population of colonial Brazil. However, in the Southern Brazilian areas disputed between Portugal and Spain, a genetic study suggests that the predominant genomic ancestry of the Brazilian Gaúcho
Gaucho
Gaucho is a term commonly used to describe residents of the South American pampas, chacos, or Patagonian grasslands, found principally in parts of Argentina, Uruguay, Southern Chile, and Southern Brazil...
s (inhabitants of the Pampa
Pampa
The Pampas are the fertile South American lowlands, covering more than , that include the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos and Córdoba, most of Uruguay, and the southernmost Brazilian State, Rio Grande do Sul...
s) may be Spanish, not Portuguese. Also a small number of Dutch settlers remained in the Northeast after the Portuguese retook Dutch Brazil
Dutch Brazil
Dutch Brazil, also known as New Holland, was the northern portion of Brazil, ruled by the Dutch during the Dutch colonization of the Americas between 1630 and 1654...
and may have contributed to the demographic composition of Northeastern Brazil.
Only in the 19th century, whence the colonial relation between Brazil and Portugal changed and the polity was renamed “United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarves”, was the immigration of non-Portuguese allowed. Even then, however, and even after the country’s independence in 1822, immigration to Brazil was mainly Portuguese, though a significant number of German immigrants settled in the Southern region.
In the mid-century, the crisis of the slave-based production in Brazil prompted the Brazilian elites to find new solutions for the work force needed for the expansion of Brazilian agriculture – especially the growing sector of coffee culture in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
European immigration
Brazilian demographics were strongly modified, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, by European immigration. Brazilian immigration policyImmigration to Brazil
Immigration to Brazil is the movement to Brazil of foreign persons to reside permanently. It should not be confused with the colonisation of the country by the Portuguese, or with the forcible bringing of people from Africa as slaves....
was closely connected to the so-called “questão da mão-de-obra” (workforce question), and planters’ concerns about how to replace the slave workforce; the reasons why the slaves were not simply transformed into free workers are a point of contention. As a result, the Brazilian government sought to attract European immigrants.
Combined with the European demographic crisis, this resulted in the immigration of about 5 million people, mostly European peasants, in the last quarter of the 19th century and first half of the 20th. The majority of these immigrants were either Portuguese or Italian (about 1,500,000 each), though significant numbers of Spaniards - which possibly include Portuguese emigrating from Vigo on false passports - (690,000), Germans (250,000), Japanese (170,000), Middle Easterns (100,000, mostly people from what are now Syria and Lebanon arriving on Turkish passports), and Eastern Europeans (mostly Poles and Ukrainians arriving on Russian passports) also immigrated.
There are few reliable statistics on the Brazilian population before the 1872 census, which counted 9,930,478, of which 3,787,289 Whites, 1,954,452 Blacks, and 4,188,737 pardos. These figures do not yet reflect the influx of the five million immigrants mentioned above, since up to 1872 only about 270,000 immigrants had arrived in Brazil. According to Judicael Clevelário's calculations, the total population of immigrant origin in 1872 would be of about 240,000 people; consequently, the total White population of non-immigrant origin for that year would be of about 3,540,000 people at least.
The White proportion of the population increased rapidly between 1872 and 1940, mainly because of immigration, but also because the growth rate of the Black and parda population, which was very low during slavery, remained below the national average for some time after abolition.
| Immigration to Brazil, by national origin, periods from 1830 to 1933 |
||||||||||
| Origin | 1830–1855 | 1856–1883 | 1884–1893 | 1894–1903 | 1904–1913 | 1914–1923 | 1924–1933 | |||
| Portuguese | 16,737 | 116,000 | 170,621 | 155,542 | 384,672 | 201,252 | 233,650 | |||
| Italians | — | 100,000 | 510,533 | 537,784 | 196,521 | 86,320 | 70,177 | |||
| Spaniards | — | — | 113,116 | 102,142 | 224,672 | 94,779 | 52,405 | |||
| Germans | 2,008 | 30,000 | 22,778 | 6,698 | 33,859 | 29,339 | 61,723 | |||
| Japanese | — | — | — | — | 11,868 | 20,398 | 110,191 | |||
| Syrians and Lebanese | — | — | 96 | 7,124 | 45,803 | 20,400 | 20,400 | |||
| Others | — | — | 66,524 | 42,820 | 109,222 | 51,493 | 164,586 | |||
Abolition of slavery (1888)
There seems to be no easy explanation of why slaves were not employed as wage workers at the abolition of slavery. One possibility is the influence of race-based ideas from the second half of the 19th century and early 20th century, which were based in the pseudo-scientific belief of the superiority of the "White race". On the other hand, Brazilian latifundiaries had been using slave manpower for centuries, with no complaints about the quality of this workforce, and there were not important changes in Brazilian economy or work processes that could justify such sudden preoccupation with the "race" of the labourers. Their embracing of those new racist ideas, moreover, proved quite flexible, even opportunist: with the slow down of Italian immigration since 1902 and the Prinetti Decree, Japanese immigration started in 1908, with any qualms about their non-Whiteness being quickly forgotten.An important, and usually ignored, part of this equation was the political situation in Brazil, during the final crisis of slavery. According to Petrônio Domingues, by 1887 the slave struggles pointed to a real possibility of widespread insurrection. On October 23, in São Paulo, for instance, there were violent confrontations between the police and rioting Blacks, who chanted "long life freedom" and "death to the slaveowners". The president of the province, Rodrigues Alves, reported the situation as following:
- The massive flight of slaves from several fazendas threatens, in some places in the province, public order, alarming the proprietaries and the productive classes.
Uprisings erupted in Itu, Campinas, Indaiatuba, Amparo, Piracicaba and Capivari; ten thousand fugitive slaves grouped in Santos. Flights were happening in daylight, guns were spotted among the fugitives, who, instead of hiding from police, seemed ready to engage in confrontation.
It was as a response to such events that, on May 13, 1888, slavery was abolished, as a means to restore order and the control of the ruling class, in a situation in which the slave system was almost completely disorganised.
As an abolitionist newspaper, O Rebate, put it, ten years later,
- Hadn't the slaves fled massively from the plantations, rebelling against the masters (...) Hadn't them, in more than 20,000, gone to the famous quilombo of Jabaquara (out of Santos, itself a center of abolitionist agitation), and maybe they would today be still slaves (...) Slavery ended because slaved no longer wanted to be slaves, because slaves rebelled against their masters and against the law that enslaved them (...) The law of May 13th was nothing more than the legal recognition - so that public authority wasn't discredited - of an act that had alreacy been accomplished by the mass revolt of slaves.
Another factor, also usually neglected, is the fact that, regardless of the racial notions of the Brazilian elite, European populations were emigrating in great numbers - to the United States, to Argentina, to Uruguay - which African populations certainly weren't doing, at that time. In this respect, what was new in "immigration to Brazil" was not the "immigration", but the "to Brazil" part. As Wilson do Nascimento Barbosa puts it,
- The collapse of slavery was the economic result of three conjugated movements: a) the end of the first industrial revolution (1760-1840) and the beginning of the so-called second industrial revolution (1880-1920); b) the lowering of the reproduction costs of the White man in Europe (1760-1860), due to the sanitary and pharmacological impact of the first industrial revolution; c) the raising costs of African Black slaves, due to the increasing reproduction costs of Black men in Africa.
Immigration discussion and policy in the 19th century
As the Brazilian elites perceived the oncoming abolition of slavery as a problem, various alternatives were discussed. While very few remained stuck with the idea of preserving slavery, some proposed the reintegration of "national workers" (which was understood as including the soon-to-be former slaves) into a "free-labour" system; others proposed Chinese immigration. It was against these positions, not against any imaginary African immigration, that racial arguments were made. So, besides a dispute "immigrantists" and "anti-immigrantists", there was also a debate between pro-Chinese and pro-European immigrantists; the latter also were divided between those, like Nicolau Moreira, who defended not only European immigration, but also a land reform, so to attract immigrants as small farmers, and those who wanted immigrants as wage labourers for the plantations.In Brazil, particularly in São Paulo, the dominant idea was that national workers were unable to develop the country, and that only foreign workers would be able to work in a regime of "free" (i.e., wage) labour. The goal was to "whiten" Brazil through new immigrants and through future miscegenation in which former slaves would disappear by becoming “whiter”.
In 1878, ten years before the abolition of slavery, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
hosted the Congresso Agrícola (Agricultural Congress) and that meeting reflected what the Brazilian elite (especially coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
planters) expected from their future workers. Although national workers were an option to some of the participants, especially to those not from São Paulo, most of them, under the lead of coffee planters from São Paulo, agreed that only immigration would be good to Brazil, and, moreover, European immigration. The Congresso Agrícola showed that the elite was convinced that Europeans were racially and culturally superior to other “races”.
Although discussions were situated in a theoretical field, immigrants arrived and colonies were founded through all this period (the rule of Pedro II), especially from 1850 on, particularly in the Southeast
Southeast Region, Brazil
The Southeast Region of Brazil is composed by the states of Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. It is the richest region of the country, responsible for approximately 60% of the Brazilian GDP. São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais are three richest states of Brazil,...
and Southern Brazil.
These discussions culminated in the Decree 528 in 1890, signed by Brazil's first President Deodoro da Fonseca
Deodoro da Fonseca
Marshal Manuel Deodoro da Fonseca became the first president of the Republic of Brazil after heading a military coup that deposed Emperor Pedro II and proclaimed the Republic in 1889, disestablishing the Empire of Brazil.- Biography :...
, which opened the national harbors to immigration except for Africans and Asians. This decree remained valid until October 5, 1892 when, due to pressures of coffee planters interested in cheap manpower, it was overturned by Law 97.
As a result of those discussions and policies, Brazil experienced immigration mostly from countries such as Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
and Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
during the end of the empire and the beginning of the republic period (late 19th and early 20th century). Later immigration, from 1908 on, was not so much influenced by that race discussions and Brazil attracted, besides Europeans, more immigrants from Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, for example.
Oliveira Vianna and the ideology of "Whitening"
The Brazilian government, as was commonplace at that time, endorsed positions expressed by Brazilian intellectuals. An example is a text, written by Oliveira Vianna, that was issued as introductory material to 1920 Census results. Many pages of Vianna's work were dedicated to the discussion of a "pure race" of white Brazilians. According to the text, written by Oliveira Vianna, the first Portuguese colonists who came to Brazil were part of the blond Germanic nobility that ruled Portugal, while the dark-haired "poor" Portuguese only came to Brazil later, in the 17th and especially the 18th century.According to Oliveira Vianna, the blond Portuguese of Germanic origin were "restless and migratory", and that's why they emigrated to Brazil. On the other hand, the Portuguese of darker complexions were of Celtic or Iberian
Iberians
The Iberians were a set of peoples that Greek and Roman sources identified with that name in the eastern and southern coasts of the Iberian peninsula at least from the 6th century BC...
origin and came when the Portuguese settlement in Brazil was already well established, because, according to him, "The peninsular brachyoids, of Celtic race, or the dolicoides, of Iberian
Iberians
The Iberians were a set of peoples that Greek and Roman sources identified with that name in the eastern and southern coasts of the Iberian peninsula at least from the 6th century BC...
race, of sedentary habits and peaceful nature, did not have, of course, that mobility nor that bellicosity nor that spirit of adventure and conquest".
The text reported the different levels of intelligence
Human intelligence
Human Intelligence may refer to:* Human intelligence in the species as the property of mind that encompasses many related abilities, such as the capacities to reason, plan, problem solve, think, comprehend ideas, use languages, and learn....
found among blacks and highlights the existence of "lazy blacks" (Gêgis and Angolans) or "laborious blacks" (Timinins, Minas, Dahomeyanos) and also the existence of "peaceful and obedient blacks" and of "rebels and fierce" ones. Vianna also compares the "morality" and intellectual level found among blacks and reports that Gêgis, Krumanos and Cabindas revealed the "mental inferiority, typical from the lowest types of the black race".
Gilberto Freyre's work
In 1933, Brazilian anthropologist Gilberto FreyreGilberto Freyre
Gilberto de Mello Freyre was a Brazilian sociologist, anthropologist, historian, writer, painter and congressman. His best-known work is a sociological treatise named Casa-Grande & Senzala...
published his famous book Casa-Grande & Senzala
Casa-Grande & Senzala
Published in 1933, Casa-Grande e Senzala is a book by Gilberto Freyre, about the formation of the Brazilian society. The "Casa-Grande" refers to the landlords residences in sugar plantations, where whole towns were owned and managed by one man...
(The Masters and the Slaves). The book appeared in a moment that it there was a widespread belief, among social scientists, that some races were superior to other ones and in the same period of the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Freyre's work was very important to change the mentality, especially of the white Brazilian elite, who considered the Brazilian people as "inferior" because of their African and Amerindian ancestry. In this book, Freyre refuted the idea that Brazil would have an "inferior race" because of the race-mixing.
Then, he pointed the positive elements that permeate the Brazilian cultural formation because of miscegenation (especially between Portuguese, Indians and blacks). Freyre's book has changed the mentality in Brazil, and the mixing of races, then, became a reason to be a national pride. However, Freyre's book created the Brazilian myth of the Racial democracy
Racial democracy
Racial democracy is a term used by some to describe race relations in Brazil. The term denotes some scholars' belief that Brazil has escaped racism and racial discrimination. Those researchers contend that Brazilians do not view each other through the lens of race and do not harbor racial...
, so that Brazil was a "post-racial" country without racism. This theory was later challenged by several anthropologists who claim that, despite the race-mixing, the "white" Brazilian population still occupies the top of the Brazilian society, while Blacks, Indians and mixed-race people are largely found in the poor population.
Gilberto Freyre on the criticisms that he received
The life of Gilberto FreyreGilberto Freyre
Gilberto de Mello Freyre was a Brazilian sociologist, anthropologist, historian, writer, painter and congressman. His best-known work is a sociological treatise named Casa-Grande & Senzala...
, after he published Casa Grande & Senzala, became an eternal source of explanation. He repeated several times that he did not create the myth of a racial democracy and that the fact that his books recognized the intense mixing between "races" in Brazil did not mean a lack of prejudice or discrimination. He pointed out that many people have claimed the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to have been an "exemplary democracy" whereas slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
and racial segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
were present throughout most of the history of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
"The interpretation of those who want to place me among the sociologists or anthropologists who said prejudice of race among the Portuguese or the Brazilians never existed is extreme. What I have always suggested is that such prejudice is minimal (...) when compared to that which is still in place elsewhere, where laws still regulate relations between Europeans and other groups".
"It is not that racial prejudice or social prejudice related to complexion are absent in Brazil. They exist. But no one here would have thought of "white-only" Churches. No one in Brazil would have thought of laws against interracial marriage (...) Fraternal spirit is stronger among Brazilians than racial prejudice, colour, class or religion. It is true that equality has not been reached since the end of slavery (...) There was racial prejudice among plantation owners, there was social distance between the masters and the slaves, between whites and blacks (...) But few wealthy Brazilians were as concerned with racial purity as the majority were in the Old South
Old South
Geographically, Old South is a subregion of the American South, differentiated from the "Deep South" as being the Southern States represented in the original thirteen American colonies, as well as a way of describing the former lifestyle in the Southern United States. Culturally, the term can be...
".
Racial legislation
A persistent Brazilian myth is the idea that, while there may have been racism in Brazil, here, contrary to what happened in the United States or South Africa, it was never enshrined in legislation. Such idea has been propagated even by progressist, anti-racist intellectuals as Darcy Ribeiro, who mistakenly holds that in Brazil, "miscegenation was never a crime or a sin". The myth of a purely informal racism is however false; there was plenty of racist legislation in Brazil, even though it never acquired the systematic character of American or South African apartheid regimes.During the colonial period, discriminatory laws were commonplace. Non-Whites were banned from the goldsmith craft (1621). In São Paulo, non-Whites were forbidden, under the penalty of prison, from using guns (1713). Descendants of Jews, Moors, Blacks, as well as those married to women of such extractions, were banned from public offices (1671). Blacks and mulattos were forbidden from "dressing as Whites" (1745). The arrival of the Royal family didn't change this: when a provincial militia was formed in Rio Grande do Sul, it was established that the members should be "White", this being defined as "those whose grand-grandparents were not Black, and whose parents were free-born" (1809). Nor did this change with independence: a complementary law to the 1824 Constitution forbade "Blacks and lepers" from being instructed in schools. Brazilian troops were segregated until the fall of the Empire.
On July 28, 1921, representatives Andrade Bezerra and Cincinato Braga proposed a law whose Article 1 provided: "It is prohibited in Brazil immigration of individuals from the black race." On October 22, 1923, representative Fidélis Reis produced another project of law on the entry of immigrants, whose fifth article was as follows: It is prohibited the entry of settlers from the black race in Brazil and, to Asians, it will be allowed each year, a number equal to 5% of those existing in the country.(...)'. Both bills were decried as racist and rejected by the Brazilian Congress.
In 1945, the Brazilian government issued a decree favoring the entrance of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an immigrants in the country: "In the admission of immigrants, the need to preserve and develop, in the ethnic composition of the population, the more convenient features of their European ancestry shall be considered".
Miscegenation
The degree of miscegenationMiscegenation
Miscegenation is the mixing of different racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, sexual relations, and procreation....
in Brazil has been very high, as Brazil was colonized by male Portuguese adventurers who tended to procreate with Amerindian and African women. This made possible a myth of "racial democracy" that tends to obscure a widespread discrimination connected to certain aspects of physical appearance: aspects related to the concept of cor (literally "colour"), used in a way that is roughly equivalent to the English term "race" but based on a combination of skin colour, hair type, and shape of nose and lips. It is possible for siblings to belong to different "colour" categories. So a "White" Brazilian is a person perceived and socially accepted as "White", regardless of ancestry or sometimes even immediate family.
While miscegenation has been one factor leading to a Brazilian population with features ranging from the stereotypically African to the stereotypically European, a second has been "assortative mating". The genome of the first generation offspring of European fathers and African mothers was 50% European and 50% African, but the distribution of the genes that affect relevant features (skin colour, hair type, lip shape, nose shape) was random. Those of the second generation with features considered closer to a "White" stereotype would have tended to procreate with others like themselves, while those considered closer to "Black" would also have tended to procreate among themselves; in the long term producing "White" and "Black" groups with surprisingly similar proportions of European and African ancestry.
Miscegenation has also been intense between immigrants and their descendants and the previous inhabitants of the country.
IBGE’s racial categories
The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), that conducts censuses in Brazil since 1940, racially classifies the Brazilian population in five categories: white, black, pardo (brown), yellow, and indigenous. As in international practice, individuals are asked to self identify within these categories.The following are the results for the different Brazilian censuses, since 1872:
| Brazilian Population, by Race, from 1872 to 2000 (Census Data) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Race or Colour | White | Black | pardos | caboclos | Yellow (Asian) | Indigenous | Undeclared | Total |
| 1872 | 3,787,289 | 1,954,452 | 3,801,782 | 386,955 | - | - | - | 9,930,478 |
| 1890 | 6,302,198 | 2,097,426 | 4,638,496 | 1,295,795 | - | - | - | 14,333,915 |
| 1940 | 26,171,778 | 6,035,869 | 8,744,365 | - | 242,320 | - | 41,983 | 41,236,315 |
| 1950 | 32,027,661 | 5,692,657 | 13,786,742 | - | 329,082 | - | 108,255 | 51,944,397 |
| 1960 | 42,838,639 | 6,116,848 | 20,706,431 | - | 482,848 | - | 46,604 | 70,191,370 |
| 1980 | 64,540,467 | 7,046,906 | 46,233,531 | - | 672,251 | - | 517,897 | 119,011,052 |
| 1991 | 75,704,927 | 7,335,136 | 62,316,064 | - | 630,656 | 294,135 | 534,878 | 146,521,661 |
| 2000 | 91,298,042 | 10,554,336 | 65,318,092 | - | 761,583 | 734,127 | 1,206,675 | 169,872,856 |
The 1900, 1920, and 1970 censuses did not count people for "race".
In the 1872 census, people were counted based on self-declaration, except for slaves, who were classified by their owners.
The 1872 and 1890 censuses counted "caboclos" (White-Amerindian mixed race people) apart. In the 1890 census, the category "pardo" was replaced with "mestiço". Figures for 1890 are available at the IBGE site.
In the 1940 Census, people were asked for their "colour or race"; if the answer was not "White", "Black", or "Yellow", interviewers were instructed to fill the "colour or race" box with a slash. These slashs were later summed up in the category "pardo". In practice this means answers such as "pardo", "moreno", "mulato", "caboclo", etc.
In the 1950 Census, the category "pardo" was included on its own. Amerindians were counted as "pardos".
The 1960 Census adopted a similar system, again explicitly including Amerindians as "pardos".
According to the 2008 PNAD, the Brazilian population is composed by:
- Brancos (White) (48.43% of the population);
- Pardos (43.80%);
- Pretos (Black) (6.84%);
- Amarelos (Yellow, i.e., East Asian) (0.58%);
- Indigenous (0.28%);
- Undeclared (0.07%).
The American impact on the study of race relations in Brazil
"In a classic article published 30 years ago, the anthropologist Charles Wagley (1965) showed that the conception of 'race' in the Americas admits of several definitions according to the weight granted to descent, physical appearance (itself not confined to skin colour), and to sociocultural status (occupation, income, education, region of origin, etc.), depending on the history of intergroup relations and conflicts in the different geographic zones. Americans in the USA are alone in defining `race' strictly on the basis of descent, and this only in the case of African-Americans: one is `black' in Chicago, Los Angeles or Atlanta, not by skin colour but for having one or more ancestors identified as blacks, that is to say, at the end of the regression, as slaves. The USA is the only modern society to apply the 'one drop rule' and the principle of `hypodescent', according to which thechildren of a mixed union and themselves automatically assigned to the inferior group - here the blacks, and only them. In Brazil, racial identity is defined by reference to a continuum of `colour', that is, by use of a flexible or fuzzy principle which, taking account of physical traits such as skin colour, the texture of hair, and the shape of lips and nose, and of class position (notably income and education), generates a large number of intermediate and partly overlapping categories (over a hundred of them were recorded by the 1980 Census) and does not entail radical ostracization or a stigmatization without recourse or remedy. Evidence for this is provided by the segregation indices sported by Brazilian cities, strikingly lower than those for US metropolitan areas, and the virtual absence of the two typically US forms of ethnoracial violence: lynching and urban rioting (see Telles, 1995; Reid, 1992). Quite the opposite in the USA where there exists no socially and legally recognized category of 'métis' (people of mixed-race) (Davis, 1991; Williamson, 1980). In this case we are faced with a division that is closer to that between definitively defined and delimited castes (proof is the exceptionally low rate of intermarriage: fewer than 2 percent of African-
American women contract `mixed' unions, as against about half of the women of Latino or Asian origin): a caste division that one strives to conceal by submerging it within the universe of differentiating visions `revisioned' through US lenses by means of `globalization'. How are we to account for the fact that 'theories' of 'race relations' which are but thinly conceptualized transfigurations, endlessly refurbished and updated to suit current concerns, of the most commonly used racial stereotypes that are themselves only primary justifications of the domination of whites over blacks in one society, could be tacitly (and sometimes
explicitly) raised to the status of universal standard whereby every situation of ethnic domination must be analysed and measured?The fact that this racial (or racist) sociodicy was able to `globalize' itself over the recent period, thereby losing its outer characteristics of legitimating discourse for domestic or local usage, is undoubtedly one of the most striking proofs of the
symbolic dominion and influence exercised by the USA over every kind scholarly and, especially, semi-scholarly production, notably through the power of consecration they possess and through the material and symbolic profits that researchers in the dominated countries reap from a more or less assumed or ashamed adherence to the model derived from the USA.
But all these mechanisms which have the effect of facilitating the actual `globalization' of American problems, thereby verifying the Americano-centric belief in `globalization' understood, quite simply, as the Americanization of the Western world and, through outward expansion, of the entire universe, these mechanisms are not enough to explain the tendency of the American worldview, scholarly or semi-scholarly, to impose itself as a universal point of view, especially when it comes to issues, such as that of 'race', where the particularity of the American situation is particularly flagrant and particularly far from being exemplary.
One would obviously need to invoke here also the driving role played by the major American philanthropic and research foundations in the diffusion of the US racial doxa within the Brazilian academic field at the level of both representations
and practices. Thus, the Rockefeller Foundation and similar organizations fund a programme on `Race and Ethnicity' at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro as well as the Centre for Afro-Asiatic Studies of the Candido Mendes University (and its journal Estudos Afro-Asiaticos) so as to encourage exchanges of researchers and students. But the intellectual current flows in one direction only. And, as a condition for its aid, the Rockefeller Foundation requires that research teams meet US criteria of `affirmative action', which poses insuperable problems since, as we have seen, the application of the white/black dichotomy in Brazilian society is, to say the least, hazardous. Alongside the role of philanthropic foundations, we must finally include the internationalization of academic publishing among the factors that have contributed to the diffusion of `US thought' in the social sciences. The growing integration of the publishing of English-language academicbooks (nowadays sold, often by the same houses, in the USA, in the different countries of the former British Commonwealth, but also in the smaller, polyglot, nations of the European Union such as Sweden and the Netherlands, and in the societies most directly exposed to American cultural domination) and the erosion of the boundary between academic and trade publishing have helped encourage the putting into circulation of terms, themes and tropes with strong (real or hoped for) market appeal which, in turn, owe their power of attraction simply to the fact of their very wide diffusion. For example, Basil Blackwell, the large, half-commercial and half-academic publishing house (what the Anglo-Saxons call a `crossover press'), does not hesitate to impose titles on its authors which are in accord with this new planetary common sense which it contributes to forging under the guise of echoing it".Pierre Bourdieu
Pierre Bourdieu
Pierre Bourdieu was a French sociologist, anthropologist, and philosopher.Starting from the role of economic capital for social positioning, Bourdieu pioneered investigative frameworks and terminologies such as cultural, social, and symbolic capital, and the concepts of habitus, field or location,...
and Loïc Wacquant
Loïc Wacquant
Loïc Wacquant is a sociologist, specializing in urban sociology, urban poverty, racial inequality, the body, social theory and ethnography....
Controversy
As the IBGE itself acknowledges, these categories are disputed, and most of the population dislikes and does not identify with them. Most Brazilians see “Indígena” as a cultural rather than racial term, and don’t describe as such if they are part of the mainstream Brazilian culture; many Brazilians would prefer to self-describe as “morenos” (literally, “tanned” or “brunettes”); some Black and parda people, more identified with the Brazilian Black movement, would prefer to self-describe as “Negro” as an inclusive category containing pardos and pretos; and if allowed to choose any classification, Brazilians will give almost 200 different answers.According to the American scholar Edward Telles, in Brazil there are three different systems related to "racial classification" along the White-Black continuous. The first is the Census System, which distinguishes three categories: "branco" (White), "pardo", and "preto" (Black). The second is the popular system that uses many different categories, including the ambiguous term "moreno" (literally, "tanned", "brunette", or "with an olive complexion"). The third is the Black movement system that distinguishes only two categories, summing up "pardos" and "pretos" as "negros". More recently, the term "afrodescendente" has been brought into use.
The first system referred by Telles is that of the IBGE. In the census, respondents choose their race or color in five categories: branca (white), parda (brown), preta (black), amarela (yellow) or indígena (indigenous). The term "parda" needs further explanation; it has been systematically used since the census of 1940. People were then asked for their "colour or race"; if the answer was not "White", "Black", or "Yellow", interviewers were instructed to fill the "colour or race" box with a slash. These slashes were later summed up in the category "pardo". In practice this means answers such as "pardo", "moreno", "mulato", and "caboclo". In the following censuses, "pardo" became a category on its own, and included Amerindians, which became a separate category only in 1991. So it is a term that describes people who have a skin darker than Whites and lighter than Blacks, but not necessarily implies a White-Black mixture.
Telles' second system is that of popular classification. Two IBGE surveys (the 1976 PNAD and the July 1998 PME) have sought to understand the way Brazilians think of themselves in "racial" terms, with the explicit aim of adjusting the census classification (neither, however, resulted in actual changes in the census). Besides that, Data Folha has also conducted research on this subject. The results of these surveys are somewhat varied, but seem to coincide in some fundamental aspects. First, there is an enormous variety of "racial" terms in use in Brazil; when Brazilians are inquired in an open ended question, from 135 to 500 different race-color terms may be brought. The 1976 PNAD found 136 different answers to the question about race; the July 1998 PME found 143. However, most of these terms are used by very small minorities. Telles remarks that 95% of the population chose only six different terms (branco, moreno, pardo, moreno-claro, preto and negro); Petrucelli shows that the 7 most common responses (the above plus amarela) sum up 97%, and the 10 more common (the previous plus mulata, clara, and morena-escura) make 99%.
Petrucelli, analysing the July 98 PME, finds that 77 denominations were mentioned by only one person in the sample. Other 12 are misunderstandings, referring to national or regional origin (francesa, italiana, baiana, cearense). Many of the "racial" terms are (or could be) remarks about the relation between skin colour and exposure to sun (amorenada, bem morena, branca-morena, branca-queimada, corada, bronzeada, meio morena, morena-bronzeada, morena-trigueira, morenada, morenão, moreninha, pouco morena, queimada, queimada de sol, tostada, rosa queimada, tostada). Others are clearly variations of the same idea (preto, negro, escuro, crioulo, retinto, for Black, alva, clara, cor-de-leite, galega, rosa, rosada, pálida, for White, parda, mulata, mestiça, mista, for "parda"), or precisions of the same concept (branca morena, branca clara), and can actually grouped together with one of the main racial terms without falsifying the interpretation. Some seem to express an outright refusal of classification: azul-marinho (navy blue), azul (blue), verde (green), cor-de-burro-quando-foge (literally, "the color of a donkey when it runs away", a Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
humorous term for an undefined color).
Petrucelli grouped those 136 terms into 28 wider categories. Most of these 28 wider categories can be situated in the White-Black continuum when the answers to the open-ended question are compared to the answers in the IBGE format:
| Category | Frequency | White | ”parda” | Black | Amerindian | Yellow | Total | difference between White and Black | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| branca (White) | 54.28% | 98,96% | 0,73% | 0,11% | 0,07% | 0,14% | 100,00% | 98,85 | |
| loira (Blonde) | 0.05% | 95,24% | 0,00% | 4,76% | 0,00% | 0,00% | 100,00% | 90,48 | |
| brasileira (Brazilian) | 0.12% | 91,20% | 6,05% | 2,27% | 0,00% | 0,47% | 100,00% | 88,93 | |
| branca + (adjectivated White) | 0.14% | 86,47% | 9,62% | 0,00% | 3,91% | 0,00% | 100,00% | 86,47 | |
| clara (of light colour) | 0.78% | 86,40% | 11,93% | 0,35% | 0,14% | 1,18% | 100,00% | 86,05 | |
| galega (Galician) | 0.01% | 70,99% | 19,78% | 0,00% | 0,00% | 9,23% | 100,00% | 70,99 | |
| castanha (Brown) | 0.01% | 63,81% | 36,19% | 0,00% | 0,00% | 0,00% | 100,00% | 63,81 | |
| morena clara (light Morena) | 2.92% | 38,35% | 57,12% | 1,46% | 2,27% | 0,81% | 100,00% | 36,89 | |
| jambo | 0.02% | 14,47% | 77,96% | 2,39% | 5,18% | 0,00% | 100,00% | 12,08 | |
| morena | 20.89% | 13,75% | 76,97% | 6,27% | 2,62% | 0,38% | 100,00% | 7,48 | |
| mestiça, mista (miscigenated, mixed) | 0.08% | 17,29% | 59,44% | 14,96% | 7,60% | 0,70% | 100,00% | 2,33 | |
| parda (Brown) | 10.40% | 1,03% | 97,25% | 1,40% | 0,21% | 0,10% | 100,00% | ||
| sarará | 0.04% | 9,09% | 60,14% | 23,25% | 0,00% | 7,53% | 100,00% | ||
| canela (of the colour of cinammon) | 0.01% | 11,13% | 57,55% | 26,45% | 4,87% | 0,00% | 100,00% | ||
| mulata (Mulatto) | 0.81% | 1,85% | 71,53% | 25,26% | 1,37% | 0,00% | 100,00% | ||
| marrom, chocolate (Brown, chocolate) | 0.03% | 4,56% | 57,30% | 38,14% | 0,00% | 0,00% | 100,00% | ||
| morena escura (dark Morena) | 0.45% | 2,77% | 54,80% | 38,05% | 4,15% | 0,24% | 100,00% | ||
| escura (of dark colour) | 0.38% | 0,59% | 16,32% | 81,67% | 1,42% | 0,00% | 100,00% | ||
| negra (Black) | 3.14% | 0,33% | 6,54% | 92,62% | 0,50% | 0,02% | 100,00% | ||
| preta (Black) | 4.26% | 0,37% | 1,73% | 97,66% | 0,17% | 0,06% | 100,00% | ||
The other categories, except, naturally, for "amarela" (Yellow) seem related to Amerindian "race":
| Category | Frequency | White | “parda” | Black | Amerindian | Yellow | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vermelha (Red) | 0.02% | 58,97 | 8,22 | 0,00 | 21,56 | 11,24 | 100,00 | |
| cafusa | 0.01% | 6,02 | 65,14 | 22,82 | 6,02 | 0,00 | 100,00 | |
| caboverde (Capeverdian) | 0.02% | 0,00 | 48,72 | 23,08 | 28,21 | 0,00 | 100,00 | |
| cabocla | 0.02% | 3,60 | 49,37 | 10,43 | 36,60 | 0,00 | 100,00 | |
| bugre (Indian) | 0.00% | 12,50 | 37,50 | 0,00 | 50,00 | 0,00 | 100,00 | |
| amarela (Yellow) | 1.11% | 3,27 | 0,98 | 0,24 | 0,15 | 95,36 | 100,00 | |
| indígena (Indigenous) | 0.13% | 0,44 | 2,12 | 0,00 | 96,13 | 1,30 | 100,00 | |
The remarkable difference of the popular system is the use of the term "moreno". This is actually difficult to translate into English, and carries a few different meanings. Derived from Latin maurus, meaning inhabitant of Mauritania, traditionally it is used as a term to distinguish White people with dark hair, as opposed to "ruivo" (redhead) and "loiro" (blonde). It is also commonly used as a term for people with an olive complexion
Olive skin
Olive skin describes a skin color range of some indigenous individuals who are from the Mediterranean and some other parts of Europe, Middle East and regions of South Asia, Southeast Asia and Central Asia. It may often be skin type 3 and 4 on the Fitzpatrick scale. However, this scale measures...
, a characteristic that is often found in connection with dark hair. In connection to this, it is used as a term for suntanned people, and is commonly opposed to "pálido" (pale) and "amarelo" (yellow), which in this case refer to people who aren't frequently exposed to sun. Finally, it is also often used as a euphemism for "pardo" and "preto".
Finally, the Black movement system, in direct opposition to the popular system, groups "pardos" and "pretos" in a single category, "negro" (and not Afro-Brazilian). This looks more similar to the American racial perception, but there are some subtle differences. First, as other Brazilians, the Black movement understands that not everybody with some African descent is Black, and that many or most White Brazilians indeed have African (or Amerindian, or both) ancestrals - so an "one drop rule" isn't what the Black movement envisages; second, the main issue for the Black movement isn't "cultural", but rather economic: it is not a supposed cultural identification with Africa, but rather a situation of disavantage, common to those who are non-White (with the exception of those of East Asian ancestry) that groups them into a "negro" category.
Race and class
Another important discussion is the relation between social class and "race" in Brazil. It is commonplace to say that, in Brazil, "money whitens". There is a persistent belief, both in academy and popularly, that Brazilians from the wealthier classes with darker phenotypes tend to see themselves and be seen by others in lighter categories. Other things, such as dressing and social status, also influence perceptions of race.However, some studies, focusing in the difference between self- and alter-classification show that this phenomenon is far more complex than "money whitens". For instance, according to a study conducted by Paula Miranda-Ribeiro and André Junqueira Caetano among women in Recife, while there is significant inconsistency between the "parda" and "preta" categories, most women are consistently classified by themselves and interviewers into "brancas" and non-brancas. 21,97% of women were consistently classified as White, and 55.13% of women were consistently classified as non-White, while 22.89% of women where inconsistently classified. But the inconsistently classified women reveal an important aspect of economic "whitening". "Self-darkening" women, i.e., those who view themselves as "pretas" or "pardas" but are classified as "brancas" by the interviewers (4.08% of women) have above average education, while the 18.82% "self-whitening" women have a low average education, lower indeed than that of consistently non-White women.
This, assuming, that there is a correlation between wealth and education, would show that, rather than "Brazilians from the wealthier classes with darker phenotypes seeing themselves and being seen by others in lighter categories", either wealth affects their perception by others, but does not affect, or at least affects considerably less, their self-perception, or that wealth in fact affects their self-perception in the opposite way: it is poor people who are more prone to self-whitening. This, naturally, contributes to show that self-classification in censuses is in fact more objective than alter-classification; but most importantly, it shows that economic differences between Whites and non-Whites effectively exist.
It is important to notice that the alter-classification in this survey was made by a group of college students, i.e., mostly middle class people.
There are important differences in social position concerning "races". These differences encompass income, education, housing, etc. According to the 2007 PNAD, White workers wages were almost twice those of Blacks and “pardos”. Blacks and “pardos” earned on average 1.8 minimum wages, while Whites averaged 3.4 minimum wages. These differences cannot be exclusively attributed to differences in education: among workers with over 12 years of study, Whites earned on average R$15.90 per hour, while Blacks and “pardos” made R$11.40.
Among the 1% wealthiest Brazilians, only 12% were Blacks or “pardos”, while Whites made 86.3% of the group. Among the 10% poorest 73.9% were Black or “pardos”, and 25.5% of whites.
13.4% of White Brazilians were graduated, compared to 4% of Blacks and “pardos”. 24.2% of Whites were studying in a college or university, compared to 8.4% of Blacks and “pardos”. In 2007, 57.9% of White students between 18 and 24 years old were attending one. However, only 25.4% of Black and “pardo” students of the same age group studied at the same level. In 2000, the illiteracy rate among White people over 5 years old was 10.87%; among Blacks, 23,23%, and among “pardos”, 21,09%.
Racial disparities
According to the 2007 Brazilian national resource, the white workers had an average monthly income almost twice that of blacks and pardos (brown). The blacks and brown earned on average 1.8 minimum wages, while the whites had a yield of 3.4 minimum wages. Among workers with over 12 years of study, the difference was also large. While the whites earned on average R$15.90 per hour, the blacks and brown received R$11.40, when they worked the same period. Among the 1% richest population of Brazil, only 12% were blacks and brown, while whites constituted 86.3% of the group. In the 10% poorest there were 73.9% of blacks and brown, and 25.5% of whites.13.4% of white Brazilians were graduated, compared to 4% of blacks and brown. 24.2% of whites were studying in a College
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
or University
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
, compared to 8.4% of blacks and brown. In 2007, 57.9% of white students between 18 and 24 years old were attending a University or a College. However, only 25.4% of black and brown students of the same age group studied at the same level. Of just over 14 million illiterates in Brazil, nearly 9 million were black or pardo. The illiteracy rate among white people over 15 years old was 6.1%. Among blacks and brown of the same age group over 14%.
Almost half of the Brazilian population (49.4%) is white. The brown form 42.3%, the black 7.4%, and the indigenous or "yellow", according to the IBGE, only 0.8%. The region with the highest proportion of brown is the north, with 68.3%. The population of the Northeast is composed of 8.5% of blacks, the largest proportion. In the South, 78.7% of the population is white.
Admixture
Genetic research on ancestry of Brazilians of different races has extensively shown that, regardless of skin colour, Brazilians generally have European, African, and Amerindian ancestors.According to a genetic study about Brazilians, on the paternal side, 98% of the White Brazilian Y Chromosome
Y chromosome
The Y chromosome is one of the two sex-determining chromosomes in most mammals, including humans. In mammals, it contains the gene SRY, which triggers testis development if present. The human Y chromosome is composed of about 60 million base pairs...
comes from a European male ancestor, only 2% from an African ancestor and there is a complete absence of Amerindian contributions. On the maternal side, 39% have a European Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA is the DNA located in organelles called mitochondria, structures within eukaryotic cells that convert the chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, adenosine triphosphate...
, 33% Amerindian and 28% African MtDNA. This analysis only shows a small fraction of a person's ancestry (the Y Chromosome comes from a single male ancestor and the mtDNA from a single female ancestor, while the contributions of the many other ancestors is not specified)., but it shows that miscigenation in Brazil was directional, between Portuguese males and African and Amerindian females.
Analyzing Black Brazilians' Y chromosome
Y chromosome
The Y chromosome is one of the two sex-determining chromosomes in most mammals, including humans. In mammals, it contains the gene SRY, which triggers testis development if present. The human Y chromosome is composed of about 60 million base pairs...
, which comes from male
Male
Male refers to the biological sex of an organism, or part of an organism, which produces small mobile gametes, called spermatozoa. Each spermatozoon can fuse with a larger female gamete or ovum, in the process of fertilization...
ancestors through paternal line, it was concluded that half (50%) of the Black Brazilian population has at least one male ancestor who came from Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, 48% has at least one male ancestor who came from Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and 1.6% has at least one male ancestor who was Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
. Analyzing their mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA is the DNA located in organelles called mitochondria, structures within eukaryotic cells that convert the chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, adenosine triphosphate...
, that comes from female
Female
Female is the sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, which produces non-mobile ova .- Defining characteristics :The ova are defined as the larger gametes in a heterogamous reproduction system, while the smaller, usually motile gamete, the spermatozoon, is produced by the male...
ancestors though maternal line, 85% of them have at least a female ancestor who came from Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, 12.5% have at least a female ancestor who was Native Brazilian and only 2.5% have at least a female ancestor who came from Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
As for the complete genetic ancestry of Brazilians, research has shown that it is predominantly European, even among non-White Brazilians. According to another study (autosomal DNA) conducted on a school in the poor periphery of Rio de Janeiro the "pardos" there were found to be on average over 80% European, and the "whites" (who thought of themselves as "very mixed") were found out to carry very little Amerindian and/or African admixtures. "The results of the tests of genomic ancestry are quite different from the self made estimates of European ancestry", say the researchers. In general, the test results showed that European ancestry is far more important than the students thought it would be. The "pardos" for example thought of themselves as 1/3 European, 1/3 African and 1/3 Amerindian before the tests, and yet their ancestry was determined to be at over 80% European.
Another autosomal DNA study, from 2010, also focused on the autosomal contribution (which is about the sum of the ancestors of each individual, the overall picture), found out that almost 80% of the Brazilian genes are of European origin in all regions except in the South where it stands for 90% of them (regardless of census classification). "Ancestry informative SNPs can be useful to estimate individual and population biogeographical ancestry. Brazilian population is characterized by a genetic background of three parental populations (European, African, and Brazilian Native Amerindians) with a wide degree and diverse patterns of admixture. In this work we analyzed the information content of 28 ancestry-informative SNPs into multiplexed panels using three parental population sources (African, Amerindian, and European) to infer the genetic admixture in an urban sample of the five Brazilian geopolitical regions. The SNPs assigned apart the parental populations from each other and thus can be applied for ancestry estimation in a three hybrid admixed population. Data was used to infer genetic ancestry in Brazilians with an admixture model. Pairwise estimates of F(st) among the five Brazilian geopolitical regions suggested little genetic differentiation only between the South and the remaining regions. Estimates of ancestry results are consistent with the heterogeneous genetic profile of Brazilian population, with a major contribution of European ancestry (0.771) followed by African (0.143) and Amerindian contributions (0.085). The described multiplexed SNP panels can be useful tool for bioanthropological studies but it can be mainly valuable to control for spurious results in genetic association studies in admixed populations." The samples came from free of charge paternity test takers, thus as the researchers made it explicit: "the paternity tests were free of charge, the population samples involved people of variable socioeconomic strata, although likely to be leaning slightly towards the ‘‘pardo’’ group".
According to another different study (also autosomal DNA from 2009), European ancestry predominates in the Brazilian population. The Brazilians as a whole, from all regions, and of all complexions, would lie more closely to the European group than to the African populations or to the Mestizos from Mexico, from the genetical point of view. This shows that the genotypes of individuals in a miscigenated population does not necessarily match their phenotype.
According to another autosomal DNA study from 2008, by the University of Brasília (UnB), European ancestry dominates in the whole of Brazil (in all regions), accounting for 65,90% of heritage of the population, followed by the African contribution (24,80%) and the Native American (9,3%).
An autosomal study from 2011 (with nearly almost 1000 samples from all over the country) has also concluded that European ancestry is the predominant ancestry in Brazil, accounting for nearly 70% of the ancestry of the population: "We estimated individually the European, African and Amerindian ancestry components of 934 self-categorized White, Brown or Black Brazilians from the four most populous regions of the Country. We unraveled great ancestral diversity between and within the different regions [...] In all regions studied, the European ancestry was predominant, with proportions ranging from 60.6% in the Northeast to 77.7% in the South [...] In all regions studied the European ancestry surfaced as uniformly preponderant, with proportions of 69.7%, 60.6%, 73.7% and 77.7%, respectively".
According to an often quoted autosomal DNA study (from 2003) focused on the composition of the Brazilian population as a whole, "European contribution [...] is highest in the South (81% to 82%), and lowest in the North (68% to 71%). The African component is lowest in the South (11%), while the highest values are found in the Southeast (18%-20%). Extreme values for the Amerindian fraction were found in the South and Southeast (7%-8%) and North (17%-18%)". The researchers noted the possibility that these conclusions could be skewed because they mostly come from economically well-to-do individuals who have registered for paternity tests. ""But an alternative explanation is that since the bulk of our sample is composed of individuals who could pay for paternity determinations, it may reflect the marked socioeconomic differentials that exist among people of different ethnic extraction in Brazil. Results of the last (year 2000) census of the Brazilian population showed marked economic differences associated with ethnic/color classification. The average monthly income of people self-defined as ‘‘black or brown’’ is about 60.0% (South region) to 51.3% (Southeast) of the amount reported by self-classified ‘‘white’’ persons. Thus, people in a better economic condition are mostly of European extraction, thus at least partly explaining the different proportions observed here and in other samples".
Several other studies have suggested that European ancestry is the main component in all Brazilian regions. A study from 2002 quoted previous and older studies (28. Salzano F M. Interciêência. 1997;22:221––227. 29. Santos S E B, Guerreiro J F. Braz J Genet. 1995;18:311––315. 30. Dornelles C L, Callegari-Jacques S M, Robinson W M, Weimer T A, Franco M H L P, Hickmann A C, Geiger C J, Salzamo F M. Genet Mol Biol. 1999;22:151––161. 31. Krieger H, Morton N E, Mi M P, Azevedo E, Freire-Maia A, Yasuda N. Ann Hum Genet. 1965;29:113––125. [PubMed]), saying that: "Salzano (28, a study from 1997) calculated for the Northeastern population as a whole, 51% European, 36% African, and 13% Amerindian ancestries whereas in the north, Santos and Guerreiro (29, a study from 1995) obtained 47% European, 12% African, and 41% Amerindian descent, and in the southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul, Dornelles et al. (30, a study from 1999) calculated 82% European, 7% African, and 11% Amerindian ancestries.
Descendants of colonial-era population
Sérgio Pena, a leading Brazilian geneticist, summed it up this way:"The correlation between color and genomic ancestry is imperfect: at the individual level one cannot safely predict the skin color of a person from his/her level of European, African and Amerindian ancestry nor the opposite. Regardless of their skin color, the overwhelming majority of Brazilians have a high degree of European ancestry. Also, regardless of their skin color, the overwhelming majority of Brazilians have a significant degree of African ancestry. Finally, most Brazilians have a significant and very uniform degree of Amerindian ancestry! The high ancestral variability observed in Whites and Blacks suggests that each Brazilian has a singular and quite individual proportion of European, African and Amerindian ancestry in his/her mosaic genomes".
Brazil's racial base are its colonial-era population, consisting of Amerindians, Portuguese settlers, and African slaves:
- At least 50% of the Brazilian paternal ancestry would be of Portuguese origin.
- European ancestry predominates in the Brazilian population as a whole, in all regions of Brazil, according to the vast majority of all autosomal studies undertaken covering the entire population, accounting for between 65% to 77% of the heritage of the population."
- African ancestry is high in all regions of Brazil. 86% of Brazilians would have over 10% of their genes coming from Africans, according to a study based on about 200 samples from 2003 The researchers however were cautious about its conclusions: "Obviously these estimates were made by extrapolation of experimental results with relatively small samples and, therefore, their confidence limits are very ample". A new autosomal study from 2011, also led by Sérgio Pena, but with nearly 1000 samples this time, from all over the country, shows that in most Brazilian regions most Brazilians "whites" are less than 10% African in ancestry, and it also shows that the "pardos" are predominantly European in ancestry, the European ancestry being therefore the main component in the Brazilian population, in spite of a very high degree of African ancestry and significant Native American contribution. The African contribution was found to be thus distributed according to the 2011 autosomal study: 10,50% in the North region of Brazil, 29,30% in the Northeast of Brazil, 17,30% in the Southeast of Brazil and 10,30% in the South of Brazil. According to an autosomal study from 2008, African contribution accounts for 24,80% of the heritage of the population And according to an autosomal study from 2010, it accounts for 14,30% of the heritage of the population.
- Native American ancestry is significant and present in all regions of Brazil. .
Descendants of immigrants
The largest influx of European immigrants to Brazil occurred in the late nineteenth and early 20th centuries. According to the Memorial do Imigrante statistics data, Brazil attracted nearly 5 million immigrants between 1870 and 1953. These immigrants were divided in two groups: a part of them was sent to Southern Brazil to work as small farmFarm
A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...
ers. However, the biggest part of the immigrants was sent to Southeast Brazil
Southeast Region, Brazil
The Southeast Region of Brazil is composed by the states of Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. It is the richest region of the country, responsible for approximately 60% of the Brazilian GDP. São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais are three richest states of Brazil,...
to work in the coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
s. The immigrants sent to Southern Brazil were mainly Germans
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
(starting in 1824, mainly from Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
, the others from Pomerania
Pomerania
Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...
, Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, Westphalia
Westphalia
Westphalia is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Arnsberg, Bielefeld, Dortmund, Minden and Münster.Westphalia is roughly the region between the rivers Rhine and Weser, located north and south of the Ruhr River. No exact definition of borders can be given, because the name "Westphalia"...
, etc.) and Italians (starting in 1875, mainly from the Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
and Lombardia). In Southeastern Brazil, most of the immigrants were Italians (mainly from the Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
, Campania
Campania
Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...
, Calabria
Calabria
Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....
and Lombardia), Portuguese (mainly from Beira Alta
Beira Alta
Beira Alta Province was a Portuguese province in the north of Portugal.Vast plateaus, river valleys, mountains, and castles abound in Beira Alta.Formerly it was part of the Beira Province.The two main cities were Guarda and Viseu...
, Minho
Minho (province)
Minho is an historical province of Portugal. It was established as an official province in 1936 and dissolved in 1976. It consisted of 23 municipalities, with its capital in the city of Braga. Today, the area would include the districts of Braga and Viana do Castelo. Minho has substantial Celtic...
and Alto Trás-os-Montes
Alto Trás-os-Montes
Alto Trás-os-Montes often regered as Nordeste Transmontano is one of the largest Portuguese NUTS-level 3 subregion integrated in the Norte Region...
), Spaniards (mainly from Galicia and Andalusia
Andalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
) and smaller numbers of French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
(most came from the southern regions) and Dutch
Dutch people
The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
(from the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
).
Notably, the first half of the 20th century saw a large inflow of Japanese
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
(mainly from Honshū
Honshu
is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...
, Hokkaidō
Hokkaido
, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...
and Okinawa) and Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
(from Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
and Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
) immigrants.
| Total of entries of immigrants in the Port of Santos Port of Santos The Port of Santos is located in the city of Santos, Brazil. As of 2006, it is the busiest container port in Latin America. It possesses a wide variety of cargo handling terminals - solid and liquid bulk, containers and general loads. It is Brazil's leading port in container traffic... , São Paulo (1908–1936) - Gender. |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nationalities | Total | % Male | % Female |
| Portuguese | 275,257 | 67.9 | 32.1 |
| Spaniards | 209,282 | 59.4 | 40.6 |
| Italians | 202,749 | 64.7 | 35.3 |
| Japanese | 176,775 | 56.2 | 43.8 |
| Germans | 43,989 | 64.3 | 35.7 |
| "Turks" | 26,321 | 73.4 | 26.6 |
| Romanians | 23,756 | 53.2 | 46.7 |
| Yugoslavians | 21,209 | 52.1 | 47.9 |
| Lithuanians | 20,918 | 58.6 | 41.4 |
| Syrians | 17,275 | 65.4 | 34.6 |
| Poles | 15,220 | 61.9 | 38.1 |
| Austrians | 15,041 | 72.7 | 27.3 |
| Others | 47,664 | 64.9 | 35.1 |
| Total | 1,221,282 | 63.8 | 36.2 |
Races by region
Historically, the different regions of Brazil had their own migratory movements, which resulted in racial differences between these areas. The Southern region had a greater impact of the European immigration and has a large White majority, which contrasts with the Northern and Northeastern regions, which have a large Pardo (mixed-race) majority. In Northern Brazil, the main racial contribution was of the native AmerindiansIndigenous peoples in Brazil
The Indigenous peoples in Brazil comprise a large number of distinct ethnic groups who inhabited the country prior to the European invasion around 1500...
, with a smaller European and African influence. In Northeastern Brazil, the main contribution was of Africans, with a smaller European and Amerindian influence. The Southeastern region of Brazil had a more balanced ratio of European, African and Amerindian admixture.
The Census of 2007 revealed that the self-reported White population had its higher proportion in the state of Santa Catarina (86.6%) and the lowest in Bahia (20.9%). The Pardo (brown) proportion was higher in Amazonas (72.4%) and lower in Santa Catarina (9.4%). The Black proportion varied from 15.7% in Bahia to 2.4% in Amazonas. Because of their small number, the Amerindian and Asian population were counted together and they had a higher proportion in Mato Grosso and Roraima (2.3%) and a lower proportion in Paraíba (0.1%).
| State | White (%) | Multiracial (mixed-race) (%) | Black (%) | Asian or Amerindian (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acre Acre (state) Acre is one of the 27 states of Brazil. It is situated in the southwest of the Northern Region, bordering Amazonas to the north, Rondônia to the east, Bolivia to the southeast and the Ucayali Region of Peru to the south and west. It occupies an area of 152,581.4 km2, being slightly smaller... |
27,1 | 67,8 | 4,1 | 1,0 |
| Alagoas Alagoas Alagoas is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil and is situated in the eastern part of the Northeast Region. It borders: Pernambuco ; Sergipe ; Bahia ; and the Atlantic Ocean . It occupies an area of 27,767 km², being slightly larger than Haiti... |
30,6 | 65,4 | 3,8 | 0,3 |
| Amapá Amapá Amapá is one of the states of Brazil, located in the extreme north, bordering French Guiana and Suriname to the north. To the east is the Atlantic Ocean, and to the south and west is the Brazilian state of Pará. Perhaps one of the main features of the state is the River Oiapoque, as it was once... |
27,6 | 62,2 | 8,1 | 2,0 |
| Amazonas | 21,6 | 72,4 | 2,4 | 3,6 |
| Bahia Bahia Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size... |
20,9 | 62,9 | 15,7 | 0,6 |
| Ceará Ceará Ceará is one of the 27 states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is currently the 8th largest Brazilian State by population and the 17th by area. It is also one of the main touristic destinations in Brazil. The state capital is the city of... |
34,3 | 62,4 | 3,1 | 0,2 |
| Brazilian Federal District Brazilian Federal District The Federal District is set apart for Brasília, the capital of Brazil. Located in a region called Planalto Central, or Central Plateau, the Federal District is divided in 29 administrative regions. Brasilia - place where the three branches of the Federal Government are located - is the main... |
41,6 | 49,5 | 7,4 | 1,3 |
| Espírito Santo Espírito Santo Espírito Santo is one of the states of southeastern Brazil, often referred to by the abbreviation "ES". Its capital is Vitória and the largest city is Vila Velha. The name of the state means literally "holy spirit" after the Holy Ghost of Christianity... |
42,2 | 48,6 | 8,5 | 0,7 |
| Goiás Goiás Goiás is a state of Brazil, located in the central part of the country. The name Goiás comes from the name of an indigenous community... |
40,6 | 52,7 | 6,1 | 0,5 |
| Maranhão Maranhão Maranhão is a northeastern state of Brazil. To the north lies the Atlantic Ocean. Maranhão is neighbored by the states of Piauí, Tocantins and Pará. The people of Maranhão have a distinctive accent... |
25,5 | 63,9 | 9,5 | 1,0 |
| Mato Grosso Mato Grosso Mato Grosso is one of the states of Brazil, the third largest in area, located in the western part of the country.Neighboring states are Rondônia, Amazonas, Pará, Tocantins, Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul. It also borders Bolivia to the southwest... |
35,3 | 54,6 | 7,8 | 2,3 |
| Mato Grosso do Sul Mato Grosso do Sul Mato Grosso do Sul is one of the states of Brazil.Neighboring Brazilian states are Mato Grosso, Goiás, Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Paraná. It also borders the countries of Paraguay and Bolivia to the west. The economy of the state is largely based on agriculture and cattle-raising... |
54,1 | 38,8 | 5,3 | 1,7 |
| Minas Gerais Minas Gerais Minas Gerais is one of the 26 states of Brazil, of which it is the second most populous, the third richest, and the fourth largest in area. Minas Gerais is the Brazilian state with the largest number of Presidents of Brazil, the current one, Dilma Rousseff, being one of them. The capital is the... |
45,7 | 44,2 | 9,7 | 0,4 |
| Pará Pará Pará is a state in the north of Brazil. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas and Roraima. To the northwest it also borders Guyana and Suriname, and to the northeast it borders the Atlantic Ocean. The capital is Belém.Pará is the most populous state... |
23,6 | 69,4 | 6,2 | 0,8 |
| Paraíba Paraíba Paraíba Paraíba Paraíba (Tupi: pa'ra a'íba: "bad to navigation"; Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: is a state of Brazil. It is located in the Brazilian Northeast, and is bordered by Rio Grande do Norte to the north, Ceará to the west, Pernambuco to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the east... |
36,5 | 57,5 | 5,8 | 0,1 |
| Paraná Paraná (state) Paraná is one of the states of Brazil, located in the South of the country, bordered on the north by São Paulo state, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Santa Catarina state and the Misiones Province of Argentina, and on the west by Mato Grosso do Sul and the republic of Paraguay,... |
70,3 | 25,5 | 3,0 | 1,1 |
| Pernambuco Pernambuco Pernambuco is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. To the north are the states of Paraíba and Ceará, to the west is Piauí, to the south are Alagoas and Bahia, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean. There are about of beaches, some of the most beautiful in the... |
37,9 | 55,2 | 6,3 | 0,6 |
| Piauí Piauí Piauí is one of the states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country.Piauí has the shortest coastline of any of the non-landlocked Brazilian states at 66 km , and the capital, Teresina, is the only state capital in the north east to be located inland... |
23,5 | 69,9 | 6,4 | 0,2 |
| Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro (state) Rio de Janeiro is one of the 27 states of Brazil.Rio de Janeiro has the second largest economy of Brazil behind only São Paulo state.The state of Rio de Janeiro is located within the Brazilian geopolitical region classified as the Southeast... |
54,5 | 32,4 | 12,6 | 0,4 |
| Rio Grande do Norte Rio Grande do Norte Rio Grande do Norte is one of the states of Brazil, located in the northeastern region of the country, occupying the northeasternmost tip of the South American continent. Because of its geographic position, Rio Grande do Norte has a strategic importance. The capital and largest city is Natal... |
37,1 | 58,5 | 3,9 | 0,4 |
| Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul is the southernmost state in Brazil, and the state with the fifth highest Human Development Index in the country. In this state is located the southernmost city in the country, Chuí, on the border with Uruguay. In the region of Bento Gonçalves and Caxias do Sul, the largest wine... |
82,3 | 11,4 | 5,9 | 0,4 |
| Rondônia Rondônia Rondônia is a state in Brazil, located in the north-western part of the country. To the west is a short border with the state of Acre, to the north is the state of Amazonas, in the east is Mato Grosso, and in the south is Bolivia. Its capital is Porto Velho. The state was named after Candido Rondon... |
34,4 | 58,8 | 5,8 | 1,0 |
| Roraima Roraima Roraima is the northernmost and least populated state of Brazil, located in the Amazon region. It borders the states of Amazonas and Pará, as well as the nations of Venezuela and Guyana. The population is 400,000 and the capital is Boa Vista... |
23,5 | 65,1 | 9,2 | 2,3 |
| Santa Catarina Santa Catarina (state) Santa Catarina is a state in southern Brazil with one of the highest standards of living in Latin America. Its capital is Florianópolis, which mostly lies on the Santa Catarina Island. Neighbouring states are Rio Grande do Sul to the south and Paraná to the north. It is bounded on the east by... |
86,6 | 9,4 | 3,6 | 0,4 |
| São Paulo São Paulo (state) São Paulo is a state in Brazil. It is the major industrial and economic powerhouse of the Brazilian economy. Named after Saint Paul, São Paulo has the largest population, industrial complex, and economic production in the country. It is the richest state in Brazil... |
67,2 | 25,4 | 6,2 | 1,3 |
| Sergipe Sergipe Sergipe , is the smallest state of the Brazilian Federation, located on the northeastern Atlantic coast of the country. It borders on two other states, Bahia to the south and west and Alagoas to the north, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean... |
28,8 | 61,3 | 8,7 | 1,3 |
| Tocantins Tocantins Tocantins may refer to:* Tocantins, a state in Brazil* Tocantins River, a river in Brazil* Survivor: Tocantins, a reality show set in Tocantins, Brazil* Tocantins Esporte Clube, a Brazilian football club... |
24,5 | 67,1 | 7,2 | 1,2 |
South
The South of Brazil is the region with the largest percentage of Whites. According to the 2005 census,White people account for 79.6% of the population. In colonial times, this region had a very small population.The region what is now Southern Brazil was originally inhabited by Amerindian
Indigenous peoples in Brazil
The Indigenous peoples in Brazil comprise a large number of distinct ethnic groups who inhabited the country prior to the European invasion around 1500...
peoples, mostly Pampeano
Charrua
The Charrúa were an indigenous people of southern South America in the area today known as Uruguay and southern Brazil. They were a nomadic people that sustained themselves through fishing and foraging...
, Guarani and Kaingang
Kaingang
The Kaingang people are a Native American ethnic group spread out over the four southern Brazilian states of São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul. They are also called Caingang and Aweikoma, though some sources list Kaingang and Aweikoma as separate groups...
s.
In the early 18th century, only a few settlers from São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
were living there. This situation made the region vulnerable to attacks from neighboring countries. This fact forced the King of Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
to decide to populate the region. For this, settlers of the Portuguese Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
islands were sent to the coast. To stimulate the immigration to Brazil, the king offered several benefits for the Azorean couples. Between 1748 and 1756, six thousand Azoreans moved to the coast of Santa Catarina
Santa Catarina (state)
Santa Catarina is a state in southern Brazil with one of the highest standards of living in Latin America. Its capital is Florianópolis, which mostly lies on the Santa Catarina Island. Neighbouring states are Rio Grande do Sul to the south and Paraná to the north. It is bounded on the east by...
. They were mainly newly married who were seeking a better life. At that time, the Azores were one of the poorest regions of Portugal. They established themselves mainly in the Santa Catarina Island, nowadays the region of Biguaçu. Later, some couples moved to Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul is the southernmost state in Brazil, and the state with the fifth highest Human Development Index in the country. In this state is located the southernmost city in the country, Chuí, on the border with Uruguay. In the region of Bento Gonçalves and Caxias do Sul, the largest wine...
, where they established Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre is the tenth most populous municipality in Brazil, with 1,409,939 inhabitants, and the centre of Brazil's fourth largest metropolitan area . It is also the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian...
, the capital. The Azoreans lived on fishing and agriculture, especially flour
Flour
Flour is a powder which is made by grinding cereal grains, other seeds or roots . It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cultures, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history...
. They composed over half of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina's population in the late 18th century.
The state of Paraná
Paraná (state)
Paraná is one of the states of Brazil, located in the South of the country, bordered on the north by São Paulo state, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Santa Catarina state and the Misiones Province of Argentina, and on the west by Mato Grosso do Sul and the republic of Paraguay,...
was settled by colonists from São Paulo due to their proximity (Paraná was part of São Paulo until the mid-19th century).
Black slaves were massively introduced into Rio Grande do Sul due to the development of jerky production, around 1780. By 1822, they have been reported as being 50% of Rio Grande do Sul's population; but this is most certainly an exaggeration. This number decreased to 25% in 1858 and to only 5.2% in 2005. Most of them were bought from Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
, though this doesn't necessarily means that they were originally inhabitants of that region.
After independence from Portugal (1822) the Brazilian government started to stimulate the arrival of a new wave of immigrants to settle the South. In 1824 they established São Leopoldo
São Leopoldo
São Leopoldo is an important Brazilian industrial city located in the south state of Rio Grande do Sul. It occupies a total area of 103.9 km² at circa 30 km from the State Capital, Porto Alegre. Climate is sub-tropical, with temperatures varying from 2°C minimum at Winter to more than...
, a German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
community. Major Schaeffer, a German who was living in Brazil, was sent to Germany in order to bring immigrants. From Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
, the Major brought the immigrants and soldiers. Settlers from Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
were brought to work as small farmer
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
s, because there were many land holdings without workers. To attract the immigrants, the Brazilian government had promised large tracts of land, where they could settle with their families and colonize the region. The first years were not easy. Many Germans died of tropical disease, while others left the colonies to find better living conditions. The German colony of São Leopoldo was a disaster. Nevertheless, in the following years, a further 4,830 Germans arrived at São Leopoldo, and then the colony started to develop, with the immigrants establishing the town of Novo Hamburgo
Novo Hamburgo
Novo Hamburgo is a city in the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.Its population is 237,044 . The city covers an area of 217 square kilometers, and the average temperature is 19°C, a mild one for the region...
(New Hamburg). From São Leopoldo and Novo Hamburgo, the German immigrants spread into others areas of Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul is the southernmost state in Brazil, and the state with the fifth highest Human Development Index in the country. In this state is located the southernmost city in the country, Chuí, on the border with Uruguay. In the region of Bento Gonçalves and Caxias do Sul, the largest wine...
, mainly close to sources of rivers. The whole region of Vale dos Sinos was populated by Germans. During the 1830s and part of the 1840s German immigration to Brazil was interrupted due to conflicts in the country (War of the Farrapos). The immigration restarted after 1845 with the creation of new colonies. The most important ones were Blumenau
Blumenau
Blumenau is a city in Vale do Itajaí, state of Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil. It was founded on September 2, 1850 by Dr. Hermann Bruno Otto Blumenau along with 17 German immigrants. A few years later Fritz Müller migrated to Blumenau as well....
, in 1850, and Joinville
Joinville
Joinville is a city in Santa Catarina State, in the Southern Region of Brazil. Joinville is Santa Catarina's largest city. In 2010, its population has reached approximately 520,000, many of whom are of German descent....
in 1851, both in Santa Catarina state
Santa Catarina (state)
Santa Catarina is a state in southern Brazil with one of the highest standards of living in Latin America. Its capital is Florianópolis, which mostly lies on the Santa Catarina Island. Neighbouring states are Rio Grande do Sul to the south and Paraná to the north. It is bounded on the east by...
; these attracted thousands of German immigrants to the region.
In the next five decades, other 28 thousand Germans were brought to Rio Grande do Sul to work as small farmers in the countryside. Until 1914, it is estimated that 50 thousand Germans settled in this state.
Another immigration boom to this region started in 1875. Communities with Italian immigrants were also created in southern Brazil. The first colonies to be populated by Italians were created in the highlands of Rio Grande do Sul (Serra Gaúcha
Serra Gaúcha
The Serra Gaúcha, The Gaucho Highlands, is the mountainous region in the northeastern portion of Rio Grande do Sul state in southern Brazil. This mountainous region is home to many Brazilians of German and Italian descent...
). These were Garibaldi
Garibaldi (city)
Garibaldi is a town in Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil. It has a population of 28,714 people, most of them of Italian descent. The city is famous for its wine and champagne productions. The name Garibaldi is an homage to the Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi and his Brazilian wife, Anita...
and Bento Gonçalves
Bento Gonçalves, Rio Grande do Sul
Bento Gonçalves is a town located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Created in 1875, it is one of the centres of the Italian immigration in Brazil. It is also known as the 'wine capital of Brazil', due to its vineyards and wine production...
. These immigrants were predominantly from Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
, in northern Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. After five years, in 1880, the great numbers of Italian immigrants arriving caused the Brazilian government to create another Italian colony, Caxias do Sul
Caxias do Sul
Caxias do Sul is a city in Rio Grande do Sul, Southern Brazil, situated in the state's mountainous Serra Gaúcha region. Coordinates: 29°10′0″ S, 51°11′0″ W....
. After initially settling in the government-promoted colonies, many of the Italian immigrants spread themselves into other areas of Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul is the southernmost state in Brazil, and the state with the fifth highest Human Development Index in the country. In this state is located the southernmost city in the country, Chuí, on the border with Uruguay. In the region of Bento Gonçalves and Caxias do Sul, the largest wine...
seeking further opportunities. They created many other Italian colonies on their own, mainly in highlands, because the lowlands were already populated by Germans and native gaúchos. The Italian established many vineyards in the region. Nowadays, the wine produced in these areas of Italian colonization in southern Brazil is much appreciated within the country, though little is available for export. In 1875, the first Italian colonies were established in Santa Catarina
Santa Catarina (state)
Santa Catarina is a state in southern Brazil with one of the highest standards of living in Latin America. Its capital is Florianópolis, which mostly lies on the Santa Catarina Island. Neighbouring states are Rio Grande do Sul to the south and Paraná to the north. It is bounded on the east by...
, which lies immediately to the north of Rio Grande do Sul. The colonies gave rise to towns such as Criciúma
Criciúma
Criciúma is a city in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. At , it is located 180 km south of Florianópolis, the state capital and around 900 km south of São Paulo...
, and later also spread further north, to Paraná
Paraná (state)
Paraná is one of the states of Brazil, located in the South of the country, bordered on the north by São Paulo state, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Santa Catarina state and the Misiones Province of Argentina, and on the west by Mato Grosso do Sul and the republic of Paraguay,...
.
A significant number of Poles
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
have settled in Southern Brazil. The first immigrants arrived in 1869. From 1872 to 1959, 110,243 "Russian" citizens entered Brazil. In fact, the majority of them were Poles, since Poland was under Russian rule until 1917, and ethnic Poles immigrated with Russian passport
Passport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....
s.
Southeast
The Southeastern region of Brazil is the ethnically most diverse part of the country.Southeast Brazil is home to the oldest Portuguese settlement in the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
, São Vicente, São Paulo
São Vicente, São Paulo
São Vicente is a coastal city of southern São Paulo, Brazil. Its estimated population in 2006 was 329,370 inhabitants.It was the first Portuguese permanent settlement in the Americas and the first capital of the Captaincy of São Vicente, now the state of São Paulo...
, established in 1532. The region, since the beginning of its colonization, is a melting pot
Melting pot
The melting pot is a metaphor for a heterogeneous society becoming more homogeneous, the different elements "melting together" into a harmonious whole with a common culture...
of Whites, Indians and Blacks. The Amerindians of the region were enslaved by the Portuguese. The race mixing between the Indian females and their White masters produced the Bandeirante, the colonial inhabitant of São Paulo
São Paulo (state)
São Paulo is a state in Brazil. It is the major industrial and economic powerhouse of the Brazilian economy. Named after Saint Paul, São Paulo has the largest population, industrial complex, and economic production in the country. It is the richest state in Brazil...
, who formed expeditions that crossed the interior of Brazil and greatly increased the Portuguese colonial territory.
In the late 17th century the Bandeirantes found gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
in the area that nowadays is Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais is one of the 26 states of Brazil, of which it is the second most populous, the third richest, and the fourth largest in area. Minas Gerais is the Brazilian state with the largest number of Presidents of Brazil, the current one, Dilma Rousseff, being one of them. The capital is the...
. A gold rush
Gold rush
A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.In the 19th and early...
took place in Brazil, and hundreds of thousands of Portuguese colonists arrived during this period. The confrontation between the Bandeirantes and the Portuguese for obtaining possession of the mines led to the Emboabas' War
Emboabas' War
The Emboabas' War , was a war waged in the early 18th century between two generations of Portuguese settlers in the vice-kingdom of Brazil, then merely the Capitaincy of São Vicente....
. The Portuguese won the war. The Amerindian culture declined, giving space to a stronger Portuguese cultural domination. In order to control the wealth, the Portuguese Crown moved the capital of Brazil from Salvador, Bahia
Salvador, Bahia
Salvador is the largest city on the northeast coast of Brazil and the capital of the Northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. Salvador is also known as Brazil's capital of happiness due to its easygoing population and countless popular outdoor parties, including its street carnival. The first...
to Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
. Thousands of African slaves were brought to work in the gold mines. They were landed in Rio de Janeiro and sent to other regions. No other place in the world had so many slaves, since the end of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. In 1808 the Portuguese Royal Family, fleeing from Napoleon, took charge in Rio de Janeiro. Some 15 thousand Portuguese nobles moved to Brazil. The region changed a lot, becoming more European.
In the last quarter of the 20th century, a huge wave of immigration came to Southeastern Brazil, attracted by the government to replace the African slaves in the coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
plantations. Most immigrants landed in the Port of Santos
Port of Santos
The Port of Santos is located in the city of Santos, Brazil. As of 2006, it is the busiest container port in Latin America. It possesses a wide variety of cargo handling terminals - solid and liquid bulk, containers and general loads. It is Brazil's leading port in container traffic...
and were forwarded to coffee farms within São Paulo. The vast majority of the immigrants came from Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. Brazil attracted nearly 5 million immigrants between 1870 and 1953. The large amounts of Italians are visible in many parts of Southeast Brazil. Their descendants are nowadays predominant in may areas.
The arrival of immigrants from several places of Europe, the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
produced an ethnically diverse population. The city of São Paulo is home to the largest population of Japanese origin outside of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
itself.
Northeast
The influx of immigrants in this region in the 19th century was much smaller than in Southern Brazil. By the way, since the late 19th century, thousands of people from this region move to the richest parts of Brazil, mainly São Paulo.The Portuguese settlers rarely brought women, which led to relationships with the Indian women. Later, interracial relationships occurred between Portuguese males and African females. The coast, in the past the place of arrival of millions of Black slaves from Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
, Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
and Benin
Benin
Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...
to work in the plantations of sugar-cane, nowadays has a predominance of Mulatto
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
es. Salvador, Bahia
Salvador, Bahia
Salvador is the largest city on the northeast coast of Brazil and the capital of the Northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. Salvador is also known as Brazil's capital of happiness due to its easygoing population and countless popular outdoor parties, including its street carnival. The first...
is considered the largest Black city outside of Africa, with over 80% of its inhabitants being African-Brazilians
Afro-Brazilian
In Brazil, the term "preto" is one of the five categories used by the Brazilian Census, along with "branco" , "pardo" , "amarelo" and "indígena"...
. In the hinterland, there is a predominance of Indian and White mixture.
North
Northern Brazil, largely covered by the Amazon rainforestAmazon Rainforest
The Amazon Rainforest , also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America...
, is the Brazilian region with the largest Amerindian cultural influence and demographic presence. Inhabited by diverse indigenous tribes, this part of Brazil was reached by Portuguese colonists in the 17th century, but it started to be populated by non-Indians only in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The exploitation of rubber
Rubber
Natural rubber, also called India rubber or caoutchouc, is an elastomer that was originally derived from latex, a milky colloid produced by some plants. The plants would be ‘tapped’, that is, an incision made into the bark of the tree and the sticky, milk colored latex sap collected and refined...
used in the growing automobile industry, caused a huge migration to the region. Many people from the Northeastern Brazil, mostly Ceará
Ceará
Ceará is one of the 27 states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is currently the 8th largest Brazilian State by population and the 17th by area. It is also one of the main touristic destinations in Brazil. The state capital is the city of...
, moved to the Amazon area. The contact between the Indians and the northeastern rubbers created the base of the ethnic composition of the region, with its mixed-race majority.
Central-West
The Central-West region of Brazil was inhabited by diverse Indians when the Portuguese arrived in the early 18th century. The Portuguese came to explore the precious stones that were found there. As it was a far away region, very few African slaves were brought to this area. Who, in fact, worked as slaves in the gold mines were the local Indians. The contact between the Portuguese and the Indians created a mixed-race population. Until the mid-20th century, Central-West Brazil had a very small population. The situation changed with the construction of BrasiliaBrasília
Brasília is the capital city of Brazil. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,557,000 as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the...
, the new capital of Brazil, in 1960. Many workers were attracted to the region, mostly from northeastern Brazil.
A new migratory movement started arriving from the 1970s. With the mechanization of agriculture in the South of Brazil, rural workers of that region, many of them of German and Italian
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
origin migrated to the Central-West Brazil.