Ethnic Groups
There are three basic ethnic sources for the Brazilian
people. To the original inhabitants (Indians) were added successive
waves of Europeans (mainly Portuguese) and Africans (mostly from the
sub Saharan west coast).
In the 16th century, the area which is
now Brazil was inhabited by several hundred indigenous tribes
which spoke different languages and had different cultures. Groups speaking the Tupi and Guarani languages hued along the coast and in the adjoining hinterland
and were the ones to first interact with the Portuguese settlers.
Many tribes speaking other languages (Gê, Arwak, and Karib)
lived in the interior and took longer to establish contact with
the “outsiders”. Today Brazil’s native Indians
number about 345,000. They are divided into roughly 215 groups
and they speak some 180 different languages. The Indians live in
vast areas, which amount to more than eleven percent of Brazil’s
total territory, set aside for them by the Federal Government.
In these areas, which total more than twice the size of the state
of California, the Indians are free to preserve their traditions.
Starting in the middle of the 16th century, Africans belonging to the Bantu
and to the Sudanic ethnic groups were brought to Brazil
to work as slaves in the sugarcane production, and later, in the
gold and diamond mines and the coffee plantations. It is estimated
that between 1550 and 1855 approximately 4 million slaves arrived
in Brazil, the great majority of them young men.
From the end of the 19th century onwards, Brazil received increasing numbers
of immigrants from all over the world. Portugal remained
the single most important source of Migrants to Brazil, followed
by Italy, Spain and Lebanon. In the first half of the 20th century,
as a consequence of war or economic pressures, sizable contingents
of immigrants came to Brazil from western, central, and eastern
Europe. In 1908, 640 immigrants came to Brazil from Japan. Because
of the welcoming social environment, a Japanese migration trend
was established. By 1969 a total of 247,312 Japanese had migrated
to Brazil. Today Brazilians of Japanese descent are the largest
group outside of Japan.
Language
Portuguese is the official language of Brazil. Except
for the languages spoken by Indian tribes living in reservations,
Portuguese is the only language of daily life. There are no regional dialects. Brazil
is the only Portuguese speaking country in South America.
Religion
The Brazilian Constitution guarantees religion
freedom. With the proclamation of the Republic in 1889, Brazil
ceased to have an official religion, although in 2000 over 70 percent of the population
declared themselves to be Roman Catholic. Recently Protestant groups
in Brazil have been growing in number. Today there are sizable
memberships in independent Pentecostal churches. There are also
followers of mainstream Protestant denominations from Europe and
the United States such as Episcopal, Methodist, Lutheran, and Baptist.
There are over a million and a half Spiritists or Kardecists who
follow the doctrines of the 19th century French psychic researcher,
Allan Kardec. Brazil's religious diversity includes converts to
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) small
minorities of Jews, Muslims and Buddhists, and numerous adherents
of Afro-Brazilian religions, the most important of which being
candomblé and umbanda.
Religious life in Brazil is in practice
marked by syncretism. Beginning in the colonial era, the cult of
Catholic saints opened itself up to a series of syncretic links. In Amazonia, where indigenous
traditions are stronger, Catholic saints of transatlantic origin
form a counterpoint with spirits who inhabit forests and rivers.
Afro-Brazilian religions such as candomblé, which was brought
to Brazil from Nigeria and Benin, adopted the observances of Lent
and Easter as a sign of respect for the great drama of Christ’s
death and resurrection, and combined the feasts of the orixás with the feasts of the saints. Oxalá, a male god of procreation
and harvest, for instance, was identified with Jesus. Iemanjá,
goddess of the sea, was associated with “Our Lady of Conception.” Umbanda,
a religion derived from a syncretism among elements of Catholicism,
Kardecist spiritualism and African traditions (from Angola, specially), is also widely practiced.
In Brazil, religion does not imply an
exclusive cultural identity. Blacks and whites share rituals
by day and night, and some beliefs handed down by the slaves are widely held today among the middle class.
Educational System
The Brazilian educational system
includes both public (federal, state, and municipal) and private
institutions, ranging from
pre-school to university and post-graduate levels. Education
is compulsory for ages 7 through 14, and public education
is free at all levels. Significant advances have been made in
the Brazilian educational structure in the last 30 years.
The
1988 Brazilian Constitution as amended allocates at least
25 percent of state and local tax revenues to education. In 1964,
there were ten million students attending school at all levels.
In 2000, this number had multiplied by five: over 7 million
children in pre-school; 33.9 million at the elementary level;
8.7 million at the secondary; and almost 3 million students
in college and graduate schools. Most importantly, in 2001
around 97 percent of children between the ages of 7 and 14
had access to the elementary level, in comparison with 86
percent
in 1990. Despite this progress, in 2001 12.4 percent of the
population was illiterate, a problem that is greatest among
the poorest segments of the population.
Beginning in the
1990s, various public programs have been launched to enhance
equal access to education. The Bolsa
Escola (School
Grant) program provides cash grants to poor families that
maintain children between the ages of 7 and 14 in school. It
links four
objectives: to increase education attainment and subsequently
reduce poverty in the long term; to reduce short-term poverty;
to reduce child labor; and to act as a potential safety net
in times of economic downturn.
At the university level,
some institutions have introduced affirmative action programs
in the form of quotas reserved
for black students
who achieve at least the minimum grade in the entrance
exam (the vestibular), and the implementation of this measure
for the whole
undergraduate system was being discussed in 2004. The federal
government maintains at least one public university in
each
state. Upon completion of a full academic course of study,
university
students may obtain the bacharel degree or, with an additional
year spent in teacher training, the licenciado degree.
Thirty years ago there were few graduate programs in Brazil.
In
2001 there were a total of 1,637 tertiary institutions
in the country,
which, in 2004, offered almost 3,000 graduate-level courses.
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