ABSTRACT
The concept of Brazilian society is as elusive as any generalisation and most foreigners are likely to have a fairly blurred image of Brazil. Probably the most ubiquitous image of the country is of the Carnival and the streets of Rio de Janeiro, mixed with sounds of the bossa nova hit ‘Girl from Ipanema’ (Garota de Ipanema) by Tom Jobim, whose rendering by Frank Sinatra, among others, spread Brazil’s image around the world. Rio de Janeiro is still considered by many people the world over to be the capital of Brazil (or even Argentina). The fact is that, even though Brazil is relatively unknown as a country, some of its culture is widely known abroad, from such personalities as Pelé and Airton Senna, and from its rhythms. But, what about Brazilian society? Is there a society in Brazil? It depends on one’s definition of society, of course, for ‘a system of common life’ (Williams 1983: 294) is a difficult definition to apply to the Brazilian case, given the lack of subjective links between the different social strata. Perhaps a shocking news piece is enough to alert us about this lack of social commitment: ‘A beggar has been burned alive in Porto Alegre. The incident happened downtown, close to the main bus station and witnesses say that there were several aggressors, some of them adolescents’ (Gerchmann 1998).
