ABSTRACT
Cultural diversity, multi-culturalism, inclusion, diff erence: Since the 1990s in Latin America, these words have entered vocabularies with newfound enthusiasm, initiating constitutional reforms and social policies. Governments have responded to growing demands for racial and ethnic equality by Indigenous and Afro-descendant populations with eff orts in relation to issues such as land claims, education, employment, and health. Th e bases of Indigenous and Afro-descendant claims are oft en tied to cultural rights and a critical examination of the past, as these groups seek policies to redress centuries of inequality, disadvantage, and cultural domination. In Bra-
zil, Afro-descendant2 movements have not only sought to address racial inequality through better access to and improvement in education. Th ey have also targeted how, historically, the devaluing of their forms of knowledge and cultural practices underlie the exclusion of Afro-Brazilian history and culture from the school curriculum and classroom. Th ese exclusions have, over time, contributed to the reproduction of racial hierarchies in the social, cultural, and economic spheres.
