Descendants In Brazil Research Articles

The Jewish Women of Ravensbrück Concentration Camp (review)

The Jewish Women of Ravensbruck Concentration Camp, by Rochelle G. Saidel. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006. 279 pp. $21.90. As the number of Holocaust survivors who are able to tell their histories decreases, the urgency increases to leave record of their experiences. It is this that has motivated Dr. Rochelle Saidel to document the experiences of the inmates of Ravensbriick concentration camp and, in particulat, those of the Jewish inmates of Ravensbriick. In so doing, she has provided well-researched account that is valuable both to scholars of the Holocaust and to friends and descendants of the Jewish women of Ravensbruck. Dr. Saidel is the founder of the Remember the Women Institute, which is dedicated to the remembrance of the women of Ravensbriick and to the continued historical research of this unique camp and its enormously strong inmate population. This book exemplifies the purpose of this Institute. In parallel to the narratives of the survivors is the narrative of the struggle to realize the Jewish identity of the inmates through history and through recognition at the Mahn- und Gedenhtatte Ravensbruck. Dr. Saidel began making contact with the survivors at the 50th anniversary of the camp's liberation in 1995. She was able to contact other Jewish survivors with the assistance of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which provided mailing list of survivors as well as cover letter for her initial contact. From this list of 300 survivors, Dr. Saidel received sixty replies, with most women completing the questionnaire and often supplying additional names. Dr. Saidel has interviewed many of these Jewish survivors and their descendants in Brazil, Europe, the U.S., and Israel. Of the 132,000 prisoners of Ravensbriick, 117,000 were killed or died there. Jewish women were minority among the inmates of Ravensbriick, comprising about 20 percent of die population, and their story has heretofore never been told. And although there are memorials to these prisoners at Ravensbruck, they are grouped according to nationality. As recendy as 1980, the Jewish prisoners were not memorialized separately but together with their fellow inmates of nation, with often inappropriate results-the Polish Jews were memorialized as part of all Polish prisoners in room with large crucifix. It was this lack of singular identification that motivated Dr. Saidel to begin her research into the lives, and often deaths, of the Jewish inmates of Ravensbriick. Now there is Jewish memorial at the camp, and this book, too, serves as memorial to these Beginning with history of the camp, Dr. Saidel describes what she refers to as a special hell for women. Indeed, Ravensbruck was unique in that it was built for female resisters and political prisoners. …

A memória congelada do imigrante: a solidariedade intergeracional dos japoneses e dos nikkeis no Brasil e no Japão atual

O artigo discute a solidariedade intergeracional dos migrantes japoneses e seus descendentes no Brasil, incluindo-se os nikkeis que retornaram para o Japão. Discute também a atual solidariedade existente entre os japoneses residentes no Japão, que não migraram para o Brasil.

Inequality and Human Rights of African Descendants in Brazil

Race and gender inequalities in Brazil are analyzed in light of international human rights law and standards. The demographic category “blacks” or “African descendants” is new and still controversial in Brazil; it conflicts with the traditional “racial democracy” ideology by grouping together dark-skinned and light-skinned blacks, but official research institutions increasingly employ this methodology. Statistical economic and demographic analysis demonstrates that African descendants’ human rights, particularly those of black women, are violated daily in Brazil. Analysis is made of compliance with international standards for the rights to life (life expectancy, mortality rates, quality of life), physical and mental health, work with dignity and equal opportunity, ongoing improvement of living conditions, and protection in childhood. Brazilian society is traditionally authoritarian and inequality is taken for granted. Meaningful economic and social change must address the specific issues of race discrimination and its legacy, which implies deep structural changes in Brazilian society.

Waiting for the Sun

Analysis of the statistical data on the economic and social situation of African descendants in Brazil demonstrates severe racial inequalities, which traditionally have been denied according to the conventional wisdom of the myth of “racial democracy.” The absence of reliable statistical data has fueled the force of this myth; statistics produced recently are the result of pressure by the black movement. The demographic presence of African descendants in the Brazilian population is examined and social indices are broken down by color/race, income levels, educational standards, and health conditions. Specific Human Development Index analysis, disaggregating data for African descendants and whites in Brazil, demonstrates the severity of racial inequality in comparison with other countries of the world and Africa. The black population in Brazil is still characterized by the absence of collective social rights and by the wide gap separating its living standards from those of the Brazilian European descendant population.

Ethnic hegemony: the Japanese Brazilians in agriculture, 1908-1968

This article examines the experience of Japanese immigrants and their descendants in Brazil, focusing on their first sixty years: how the group established a secure economic foothold through its mostly agricultural pursuits in Brazilian society; and how this foothold facilitated the process which achieved the upward socio-economic mobility of the group. The review of the existing historical literature is adduced to probe empirically and to test the applicability of the model of ethnic hegemony earlier proposed by Robert Jiobu, specifying the model to the Japanese group in Brazil. The study has probed the model to be useful in explaining the Japanese experience in Brazil in a new and theoretically meaningful way.

Kachigumi: a collective delusion among the Japanese and their descendants in Brazil.

In August 1945 the Second World War ended. The end of the war precipitated a sharp division of the 300,000 Japanese community in Brazil over its outcome, and a large majority believed that Japan had won the war and they came into conflict with the minority who acknowledged the defeat of Japan. The ensuing bitter conflict within the Japanese community in Brazil continued over several years and eventually led to the assassination of more than fifteen community leaders. As time passed, a majority of these victory-believers came to grasp the reality, but there are still remnants of fanatic victory-believers who shut themselves off completely from other Japanese. A chronological account of the event is reported in this paper from the perspective of the process of acculturation of Japanese immigrants to Brazilian culture.

Culto aos antepassados, Yuta e comunidade a prática do culto aos antepassados pelos descendentes de Okinawanos no Brasil

In this article, we intend to scribe an preliminary interpretation in relation to characteristics of the practice of ancestor worship, accomplished of Okinawan immigrants and their descendants in Brazil. The Objective of this work is to analyse the transformations and the Okinawan shaman's function in this practice,relating this questions with the change of connexion of Okinawa, Japan and Brazil, of the point view Okinawan residents in Brazil. For this, this analysis is parted, for convenient, in four periods: before World War II, after World War II until decade of 70, decade od 70 as far as decade of 80 and decade of 90. Through the survey of the specificity of practice of ancestor worship in each period and of several factor that influenced this practice, we intend to analyse the influences of the process of globalization had on this practice.

Immigration to Brazil: Some Observations on the Linguistic Assimilation of Immigrants and their Descendants in Brazil

Immigration to Brazil: Some Observations on the Linguistic Assimilation of Immigrants and their Descendants in Brazil