The English in Brazil: A Study in Cultural Encounters

Abstract

This article discusses The English in Brazil by Gilberto Freyre, a pioneering study of what he calls the ‘gentle, velvet revolution’ produced by the multitude of British manufactures, ideas and habits which invaded the country during the nineteenth century — from trams, gas lamps, railways, sewers and glass windows, to beer, hats, bread and butter, afternoon tea, the use of knives and forks, the habit of shaving daily, and much more. Its aim is to draw attention to the fact that this immense inventory of the traces that the British left behind also contains what might be termed a ‘manifesto for an anthropological history’. Starting from the premise that eminent personages and grandiose events only tell one side of history, Gilberto Freyre makes the point that studying the ‘Cinderellas of history’ and the apparently minor and irrelevant facts of daily life can be an excellent way to access the more general aspects of a culture’s past.