ABSTRACT

The Brazilian order has been contrasted with that in the United States by virtue of its history of pervasive racial and cultural blending and the validation of this process by maintaining a ternary racial project that differentiates its population into Whites (brancos), multiracial individuals (pardos), and Blacks (pretos). These dynamics have been accompanied by fluid racial and cultural markers and the absence of legalized barriers to equality in both the public and private spheres. Correspondingly, it has been argued that class and cultural, rather than racial, signifiers determine identity and status in the social hierarchy. This image was popularized in anthropologist Gilberto Freyre’s monumental study of Brazilian race relations (The Masters and the Slaves, 1933; The Mansions and the Shanties, 1936; Order and Progress, 1959).