Afro-Brazilian Population Research Articles

THE GREEK MYTH IN AFRO-BRAZILIAN CULTURAL SPACE (STUDYING THE FILM “BLACK ORPHEUS” DIRECTED BY M. CAMUS)

The article focuses on the study of the peculiarities of interpretation of Greek myth in the Afro-Brazilian cultural space using the material of the film “Black Orpheus” directed by M. Camus, based on the play “Orfeu da Conceição” by Vinicius de Moraes. The author traces the origins of the appeal to the image of Orpheus in the works of Camus and Moraes, and reveals the connection with the French dramatic tradition and cinema. M. Camus transforms the Greek story through the prism of the culture of the Afro-Brazilian population of Rio de Janeiro — the inhabitants of the favelas. The film brings to the fore the musical component of the myth, with the help of which the originality of the Afro-Brazilian tradition and carnival practices of Latin America are revealed. Orpheus in the film appears as a tram driver, singer and leader of a samba school. His image combines the Dionysian principle (the carnival tradition into which Orpheus is “inscribed”) and the Apollonian (expressed in lyrical songs and cultural codes of bossa nova). The carnival “building” of mythological reality allows us to touch the spiritual layers of the Brazilian tradition — the syncretic cult of Candomble. The space of the Macumba ritual symbolizes the Kingdom of Hades, in which dialogue with Eurydice is carried out through musical magic that opens doors between the worlds. The passage through the Kingdom of the Dead represents a rite of passage in which the hero dies and is reincarnated in a new form: in the finale, Orpheus “transfers” his musical gift to the boy, symbolically gaining new life in him. The interpretation of the ancient Greek plot in the space of Afro-Brazilian carnival practices helps to reveal the civilizational specificity of Latin America and Orfeus as an “eternal image” that embodies the divine gift of love, the magic of music, and eternal existence through a change of forms.

Historical paths of black ethnic-racial identity in Brazil

The article deals with the historical paths of black ethnic-racial identity in Brazil. The text discusses the historical trajectory of the socio-racial relations of the black population in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries from the perspective of building a black identity. In the 19th century, the Afro-Brazilian population encountered obstacles in building its own identity. In the 20th century, there was a more accentuated struggle for the construction of a black identity. In that century, identities called Sociological Subject (HALL, 2006), Resistance and Project (CASTELLS, 1999) were configured. In the 21st century there are advances in the construction of this identity due to the previous historical struggles of the black generations. The study points out the Resistance and Project identity models. The investigation consists of a descriptive-analytical study on the types of identities that coexisted and coexist in the process of Afro-Brazilian identity construction - from the 19th to the 21st century in the perspectives of Hall (2006; 2011) and Castells (1999; 2002), Elias (1994; 2001) and Goffman (1999; 2004). The study concludes that in each historical moment the Afro-Brazilian population built a singularity of identity in the light of delimited theorists.

Abstract C073: Racial disparities in triple negative breast cancer in urban Brazilian women

Abstract Breast cancer (BC) is the main cause of cancer-related death for women worldwide. While the incidence of disease is still higher in high income countries, lower and middle income countries have a proportionally higher mortality burden and account for almost half the deaths due to the disease globally. In Brazil, BC is the most common cancer in women, with mortality rates that almost equate those in the US. BC mortality has also been increasing steadily and most women are diagnosed with late stage disease greatly lowering their chances of survival. Data suggests that Black and Brown women suffer from higher excess disease mortality even when extent of disease, year of diagnosis, age and socioeconomic status are considered, highlighting a clear racial BC disparity. Less is known about the distribution of aggressive BC subtypes such as triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) in the Brazilian population in relation to race. Data suggests that TNBC is more common in the northeast of the country where the Afro-Brazilian population is larger. To expand our knowledge, we explore the presence of TNBC among women of different races diagnosed with BC and also its potential association with other variables. We conducted analysis on women that attended the Instituto Nacional do Câncer Hospital in Rio de Janeiro between the years 2016 and 2017, for which more complete data was available. We extracted subtype information from their pathology reports and used the Registros Hospitalares de Câncer (RHC) database to collect data on demographic/lifestyle factors such as age, race, education, alcohol and tobacco use, and disease stage at time of diagnosis. We conducted our analysis on 243 women with full records on all variables selected using multivariate logistic regression analysis. We found a significant difference in the proportion of TNBC by race, 41.2% of TNBC were found in Black women, while only 23.5% and 35.3% of the TNBC tumors were found in Brown and White women, respectively (p=0.028). We also found that TNBC was diagnosed in this cohort at a later stage than other subtypes. TNBC is diagnosed at a later clinical (III and IV) and pathological stage (3), while other subtypes tend to be diagnosed earlier at stages I/II or 1/2a. 47% of women with TNBC are diagnosed with stage 3a and 3b, while only 13.4% of women with other cancer are diagnosed at these stages (p=0.024). Similarly, of all diagnoses made at stage III and IV, 47.1% were TNBC and 14.7% were of other tumors (p=0.001). When adjusted for age and clinical stage, being Black was still significantly associated with being diagnosed with TNBC (β=1.57, 95% Confidence Interval 1.67-13.75, p=0.004). Interestingly, similar associations between race and TNBC diagnosis were not observed in women that self identified as Brown. These preliminary results add to our knowledge of the importance of considering subtype when analyzing race/ethnicity in association to BC outcomes. In future work, we will expand our analysis to other clinical variables and use larger samples to better understand these associations. Citation Format: Lissette Delgado-Cruzata, Flavia Carvalho, Diego Gomes, Tatiana Simão, Jennifer Vieira, Rachele Grazzioti, Sheila Coelho. Racial disparities in triple negative breast cancer in urban Brazilian women [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 15th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2022 Sep 16-19; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2022;31(1 Suppl):Abstract nr C073.

Mothers, protection and care amongst communities affected by torture and state violence in Brazil

This article examines the ways in which protection from torture and violence is understood and practiced by women in poor urban communities in Brazil. It demonstrates that despite a well-developed normative and institutional framework for the protection of survivors of torture and violence, such protection work grows from the notion of motherhood, which can be understood as an outlet for challenging various overlapping orders (race, class and gender) that legitimise torture and violence. Motherhood garners legitimacy in the fight for justice, for the truth and for restoring the positive memories related to the tortured, killed or imprisoned children and it generates moral and political capital that enable political participation for women. The article demonstrates that despite a well-developed institutional and normative framework for protection, everyday protection strategies respond to the perceptions and needs of survivors and their communities and can only be understood in the context of racial and gendered roles and performances of motherhood shaped by the historical enslavement of the Afro-Brazilian population.

COVID-19 Prejudice Towards Afro-Brazilians

ABSTRACT As of May 2021, more than 14.7 million people have been infected and nearly 409,000 people have died from COVID-19 in Brazil. During the pandemic, there were countless cases of discrimination, racism, prejudice, and violence towards Brazil’s Afro-Brazilian population. Using integrated threat theory (ITT), this study investigates prejudice towards Afro-Brazilians. Specifically, this study (n= 410) examines the extent to which COVID-19 related prejudice towards Afro-Brazilians, who were partially blamed for the spread of the virus, is related to prejudice and fear of COVID-19. Results reveal the following: ethnocentrism is positively related to symbolic and realistic threat and fear of COVID-19 is positively related to symbolic and realistic threat.

Health panorama of the Afro-Brazilian population: a systematic review

In the present study, we sought to identify the current health panorama of the Afro-Brazilian population in the period from 2007 to 2021, based on a systematic review study. The nineteen selected studies allowed the creation of two thematic groups: Epidemiological aspects of pathologies in the afro-brazilian people and Health epidemiological aspects of the afro-brazilian women. We identified that some common chronic pathologies are Metabolic Syndrome (Hypertension, DM 2, Obesity) and Chronic Renal Insufficiency; infectocontagious pathologies like HIV/AIDS, tooth decay and Chagas disease; and mental disorders. In addition, smoking during pregnancy and anemia seem to be more prevalent in black women.

Entre jogos: Una discusión poscolonial sobre la regulación de la Capoeira

El artículo presenta las discusiones suscitadas por la propuesta de ley PL 3640/2020, presentada por el Diputado Lafayette de Andrada, la cual, tiene como fin regular las actividades profesionales de las personas que practican Capoeira. Esta discusión se suma a los múltiples intentos que se han impulsado por regular la práctica de la Capoeira. Por ello, el estudio se funda en un análisis poscolonial sobre los intentos de regulación de la Capoeira que han sido propuestos por las autoridades del gobierno brasileño. A partir de lo cual, se puede concluir que las relaciones políticas entre las autoridades y las personas que practican Capoeira muestran la pervivencia de prácticas colonialistas en torno al control de los saberes populares afrobrasileños.

Racism and Sexism in Brazilian Culture

This is a translation of Racismo e Sexismo na Cultura Brasileira , an oral presentation given at the meeting of the Working Group “Themes and Problems of the Black Population in Brazil”, at the IV Annual Meeting of the National Association of Graduate Studies and Research in Social Sciences (ANPOCS), Rio de Janeiro, 31 October 1980. It was later transcribed and originally published in the first issue of the collection Ciencias Sociais Hoje , p. 223–244, in 1984, organized and published by the same association. Using political-cultural categories and concepts, such as Amefricanity, Pretogues , Brazilian cultural neurosis and myth of racial democracy, Lelia Gonzalez, from an inter-sectional perspective, develops on the dynamics and specificities of racial relations in Brazil and the country’s social and cultural formation, marked by racism and colonization. As a precursor of Afro-Latin American Feminism, the author analyzes the social and subjective condition of the Afro-Brazilian population, more specifically the material and symbolic bases of the oppression and exploitation of Black women, impacted by the double phenomenon of racism and sexism, and their role in resisting the pressures of erasing Brazil’s African roots. Please note, the correct citation as per APA guidelines is: Gonzalez, L. (2021). Racism and Sexism in Brazilian culture (M. J. Venâncio; M. Mendonca; G. Segat, Trans.). New Sociological Perspectives, 1(1) (Original work published 1984)

A Lei 10.639 e as licenciaturas da UFG/RC:

A Lei 10.639, aprovada em 2003, tornou obrigatório o ensino da história e da cultura da populaçãoafro-brasileira nas escolares brasileiras de educação básica. No entanto, a Lei não previu como seria aformação, nas licenciaturas, de modo que os professores sejam formados nessa perspectiva. Pensandonisso este artigo tem o objetivo de analisar como as licenciaturas da UFG/Regional Catalão estãocontemplando em seus Projetos Pedagógicos de Curso (PPC) as questões raciais. O trabalho tevecomo ponto de partida uma oficina com a temática “A educação para as relações étnico raciais: 15anos da Lei 10.639/03”, realizada durante o IV Congresso de Pesquisa, Ensino e Extensão(CONPEEX/UFG/RC) ocorrido no ano de 2018. Para preparar a oficina e posteriormente asdiscussões deste artigo, foi feito um breve levantamento nos PPCs das licenciaturas ofertadas naRegional e que estavam disponíveis no site institucional, buscando identificar como esses documentosestão abordando na formação inicial de professores as questões das quais tratam a Lei 10.639/03. Osresultados foram discutidos na oficina e, posteriormente, sistematizados de modo mais reflexivos nesteartigo.

Insurgent screams in raw meat and hashtag

We point out some of the chronicles in Cidinha da Silva’s #Paremdenosmatar as texts that translate in a literary language the genocide of the black population in contemporary Brazil. We call the reader’s attention to the way the chronicles establish a necropolitics around the black body and how its physical and symbolic annihilation occurs. In addition, we also present the construction of a “poetics of life” in #Paremdenosmatar, which creates fictional spaces of resistance of the Afro-Brazilian population.

O currículo de física em movimento: compreender os processos históricos do conhecimento em uma perspectiva antirracista

Este artigo traz resultados de uma dissertação — do Mestrado Profissional em Ensino de Física (MNPEF), polo 21, da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande – FURG — a qual teve como objetivo central, investigar como o Ensino de Física pode contribuir para uma educação antirracista, a partir da vivência de uma Unidade de Aprendizagem sobre as tecnologias desenvolvidas por africanos(as) e afro-brasileiros(as) escravizados(as) no período escravista criminoso no Brasil. A fim de atingirmos tal objetivo, analisamos uma Unidade de Aprendizagem no contexto do Ensino de Física vivenciada por estudantes do primeiro ano do ensino médio de uma escola Estadual em Porto Alegre (RS). Ao longo da vivência buscamos responder as duas questões: (a) Como o Ensino de Física pode contribuir para uma educação antirracista e desenvolver metodologias que dialoguem com a legislação vigente, contribuindo para o exercício da cidadania e para a formação científico-tecnológica no seu contexto político-social?; (b) Como a utilização da Física relacionada aos equipamentos desenvolvidos pelos africanos(as) escravizados(as) no período escravista criminoso no Brasil, pode ser uma estratégia para abordar a história e cultura africana e afro-brasileira visando uma educação antirracista?. Utilizamos a Análise Textual Discursiva (ATD), de Moraes e Galiazzi (2013) em que o corpus da pesquisa para análise constituiu-se pelas produções escritas e diálogos dos estudantes e do professor durante a vivência da Unidade de Aprendizagem. Identificamos como resultado duas categorias: “Currículo em Movimento” e “Descolonizar o currículo de Física”.

O universo do samba e o ensino da história e cultura africana e afro-brasileira

Compreendemos o universo do samba como as narrativas das relações que constituem a história do samba, na perspectiva das pessoas negras no Brasil. O reconhecimento dessas histórias, contadas em sons, versos e movimentos são fundamentais para a compreensão da formação da sociedade brasileira e para a desconstrução de preconceitos e desqualificações acerca da história, cultura e identidade da população afro-brasileira. Articulando esses conhecimentos com o Parecer n. 003/2004 do Conselho Nacional de Educação, que regulamenta a alteração trazida à Lei 9.394/96 de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Nacional pela Lei 10.639/03, este artigo tem como objetivo propor uma reflexão sobre o universo do samba em sua potencialidade para o Ensino da História e Cultura Africana e Afro-brasileira na escola. Considerando a riqueza e abundância da produção simbólica que compõe o samba, é possível atentar para os modos de ser e viver, educar e educar-se no contexto deste universo que possam nos auxiliar a pensar e apreender sobre a Educação das Relações Étnico-raciais no país.

Economic Pessimism and Racial Discrimination in Brazil

When studying Black politics, Brazil is an important country to consider because of its large Afro-descended population, its history of slavery, and persistent racial and economic inequality. In this article, I examine the role perceptions of racial discrimination play on the economic well-being of the Black Afro-Brazilian population. I test the hypothesis that, as Afro-Brazilians’ perceptions of racial discrimination increase, the more likely it is they will hold a pessimistic view of their economic situation. I rely on 2010 national data to conduct an ordered logit regression analysis which shows that Black and Brown Brazilians who have experienced racial discrimination are more likely to be pessimistic about their economic situation when compared with Blacks and Browns who have not experienced racial discrimination. In addition, ordered logit regression analysis demonstrates that respondents who admit experiencing racial discrimination are more likely to be women, identify as preto, and have more education.

Cultura indígina e identidade nacional

A ideia de uma identidade nacional foi sendo construída; não havia, inicialmente, um Brasil como hoje conhecemos. Essa noção começa a se solidificar entre os anos de 1940 a 1950. As pessoas se identificavam pelo local onde nasciam, onde sua família estava enraizada, não pela sua nacionalidade. A história do país foi e é construída por um processo contínuo de inclusão-exclusão, o que faz com que diferentes grupos sociais e identitários continuem num processo de busca pela sua afirmação, em especial os indígenas e a população afro-brasileira. A metodologia utilizada na construção deste artigo foi a pesquisa bibliográfica e a pesquisa de campo, tanto atuando como psicóloga no grupo de saúde mental que existe dentro da aldeia Jaraguá, em São Paulo, como nas visitas às aldeias Guarani de Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, e entrevistas com três indígenas, das etnias Guarani, Pitaguary e Tibiriça.

Planting Axé in the City: Urban Terreiros and the Growth of Candomblé in Late Nineteenth-Century Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Documentation from the second half of the nineteenth century suggests that Candomblé, the religion formed by African slaves and their descendants in Brazil, flourished in the crowded urban blocks of Bahia's capital city. Nonetheless, in contrast to some of the surviving, large congregations established in the sparsely populated outskirts of Salvador, very little is known about the spaces of worship located in the ground-level houses and basements where much of the city's Afro-Brazilian population lived. This article suggests that their existence hinged on an ability to neutralize the police repression and procure natural resources for ritual use. But even more so, their practices demanded access to the ground to “plant” the prerequisite materials underground before inaugurating the space for religious observations. Evidence from archaeological research in a late nineteenth-century house basement is presented to discuss the role played by buried “axés” in the religion. Ethnographic analogies with past and contemporary Candomblé practices are used to demonstrate continuities in the choice of locations and some of the characteristics of the objects whose roles were to protect the space and consecrate the soil for ritual practices.

GEOGRAFIA, CARTOGRAFIA E O BRASIL AFRICANO: ALGUMAS REPRESENTAÇÕES

<p>Dentre as questões estruturais relacionadas à cultura africana no Brasil que continuam merecendo investigação e conhecimento, destaca-se as relacionadas aos aspectos geográficos e historiográficos da nossa formação territorial, geralmente tratadas sem as referências devidas às matrizes e ancestratlidades africanas “invisíveis” na sociedade brasileira. O paper resgata as principais referências da geopolítica da diáspora África-América-Brasil e a configuração atual da população afrobrasileira contemporânea. O pensamento social preconceituoso ainda dominante e o desconhecimento da população do país, no que se refere ao continente africano e as suas relações com o Brasil, continuam sendo um dos entraves estruturais para uma perspectiva real de diminuição da exclusão e invisibilidade secular, assim como, a criação no setor decisório, das condições necessárias para a implementação eficaz de políticas públicas mais articuladas e com resultados satisfatórios, sobretudo, na educação e no espaço geográfico.</p>

Species with medicinal and mystical-religious uses in São Francisco do Conde, Bahia, Brazil: a contribution to the selection of species for introduction into the local Unified Health System

We investigated the knowledge and practices of local residents in São Francisco do Conde, Bahia, regarding the use of medicinal and mystical plants with the aim of proposing strategies for the incorporation of phytotherapies into the local Unified Health System through local Basic Health Clinics. This municipality was founded during the early colonization of Brazil, introducing the monoculture of sugarcane and slave labor to the region, resulting in a currently largely Afro-Brazilian population. Key informants and local specialists were interviewed and workshops were undertaken at the Basic Health Clinics to collect data and information. The interviewees made 254 references to 126 plant species distributed among 107 genera and 50 families. Among the species cited with medicinal or mystical uses, 51.6% were considered autochtonous, and 42.8% were cited in at least one document of the Brazilian Health Ministry; of these, 11.1% were mentioned in four to eight documents, indicating potential for introduction to the local Unified Health System. The valorization of local knowledge and practices concerning the use of medicinal plants represents an important approach to public health efforts.

Promoting Capoeira, Branding Brazil: A Focus on the Semantic Body

At a summer festival in a major North American city, a dozen boys and girls, young adults all, are wearing white pants, standing in a circle, clapping hands, and singing in Portuguese. One pair in the middle of the circle seems to kick each other without really striking, dodging one another's feet with acrobatic and seemingly deliberately aestheticized movements. Once the pair stops, the group leader--a muscular dark-skinned man--explains to the gathering spectators that what they have just seen is called capoeira, a Brazilian martial art that was created by African slaves in Brazil as a form of resistance to colonial authorities. As he speaks, some of the practitioners give out flyers on which the main feature is a gorgeous blue-eyed, blond-haired young woman, who is, in fact, a capoeira student from the group doing the presentation. The historical explanation given by the mestre (the group leader and an expert practitioner) seems at odds with the setting of the festival, the image used on the promotional flyers, and the trendy allure of the members of the group. On the other hand, the appeal of this performance might very well have been amplified by this mysterious underground history, authenticated by the leader's blackbody that recalls the origins of the practice in slavery and his foreign accent that reveals his own Brazilian heritage. A number of paradoxical elements are at play in this scene. Together they point to the long route that capoeira has traveled: what started out as a practice of resistance is now a fashionable activity available worldwide. Indeed, this article works under the assumption that capoeira's exportation outside of Brazil was made possible by the practice's (partial) commodification, allowing it to circulate in a global culture industry as a product available for consumption. Since the last quarter of the twentieth century, immigrating Brazilians brought their practice with them and many commercialized their embodied knowledge and specialized expertise, making it the basis of their livelihood (Robitaille 2013). Such globalization of capoeira has recontextualized it, unsettling both its relationship to its immediate national settings and its underlying socioeconomic and racial connotations. These associations are, however, put to use in the way capoeira is presented, marketed, received, and consumed in the global culture industries. This article explores how capoeira's circulation in North American markets and the diverse ways that mestres promote it shift the valuations attached to the practice and modify its meanings with respect to notions of race. In particular, I explore various disjunctures between representation and embodiment related to the globalization and commodification of capoeira and the various contradictions and possibilities that result. Not the least of these is the way that embodied knowledge in the context of a commercialized teaching of expressive culture unsettles and further complicates understandings of race and of cross-cultural exchange/appropriation. With the globalization of capoeira, various aspects of the practice are altered and made into something readily consumable, thus necessarily resignified. My central concern here is one vital element in this process: the capoeirista's body. Capoeira is continually manifest and actualized through the bodies of its practitioners. There are important continuities between the meanings circulating now via capoeiristas' bodies and the historical narratives that were attached to the bodies of African descendants in Brazil: the complex racial politics and the ensuing social attitudes toward the Afro-Brazilian population in Brazil still inform the interpretations of capoeira that circulate globally in various culture industries even though some semantic shifts and ruptures happen as the practice opens up to new populations worldwide. In the following pages, I examine the meanings attached to and articulated through capoeiristas' bodies in order to discuss the varied fields of value and the shifting valuations of capoeira in the North American culturescape. …

HLA-G 5′ URR SNPs and 3′ UTR 14-bp insertion/deletion polymorphism in an Afro-Brazilian population from Paraná State

The present study investigated 23 SNPs in the 5'URR promoter region and the 14bp ins/del polymorphism at the 3'UTR region of the HLA-G gene in 150 individuals with Afro-Brazilian ancestry. Three haplotypes were found to be the most frequent. Comparing these polymorphisms in other samples, our data suggest that Afro-Brazilians are more similar to the Euro-Brazilians than to Hutterite population.

Alfabetização e escolarização de trabalhadores negros no Recife oitocentista: perfis e possibilidades

In this study, we discuss the practices of schooling and literacy of the Afro-Brazilian population in the context of nineteenthcentury in Brazil, interpreting these different “ways to practice” as everyday initiatives of resistance and social affirmation used by Afro-Brazilians in face of the political and cultural limitations of slave society. This sociocultural process is herein analyzed since the official implementation of the “first letters” classes to teachers and apprentices of crafts by a professional association founded in the city of Recife. We observed the social and ethnic repercussions of this educational activity and what it represents in the understanding of the symbolic and material production of Afro-Brazilians in the New World.