Brazilian Culture Compared

So... where do I start? Comparing two cultures is a little like comparing a windshield in the rain and a bucket of water. They have common denominators - beyond the obvious fact of including water (i.e. people), you just have to find them before you can move on. However the most in-common factor is simply that - they include people. And people, no matter where they are, have a lot in common. They eat, they sleep, they think, they feel, they desire, they dream, they move, they understand, they have needs - including that of deep and consistent relationships - and they seek to have those needs met in a variety of ways, some good, some not-so-good. And etc. But people are also as varied as a kaleidoscope and need to be understood that way. Especially when you're looking ACROSS culture lines.

So what do the US and Brazil have in common beyond being made up of people? A lot, it turns out. They're both democracies with nationally elected presidents and three branches of government that keep each other somewhat in check; they use a lot of the same technology and are both increasingly moving into an electronic, computer-based and single-family-home world. They include a huge amount of variety across their almost-identically-sized expanses - from hill billies (called sertanejos - seirt-an-edge-oos - in Brazil) to yuppies (hmm... not quite sure there is a single-word translation for this one, other than saying someone is from the capital of any given state. Brazil does a much better job of having its biggest cities also be its capital cities than the US does) - and a variety of cultures (from other countries as well as from their own expansive corners). But the differences are also significant and go far beyond the cuisine and the most common skin color (a pleasant apple-butter brown in Brazil instead of white, almost opaque like I am. Not that there aren't plenty of white Brazilians too - they're just one of the many minorities and have the unfortunate problem of having to use a lot more sun-screen than most of the rest). Although the idea that dark skin saves you from skin cancer is a great folklore.

Anyway... what else is common between the US and Brazil? Some aspects of its history - both are part of the Americas, influenced indirectly by the Incas and Aztecs, despite themselves, and discovered by Europeans who were only-too-willing to take over due to superior arms and carrying deathly viruses and bacteria and slavery to their none-too-willing "discovered" peoples. Brazil has as many or more Native tribes still in existence than the US, most of them on reserves, although some have the fortunate (?) situation of continuing to be cannibalistic or child-killers in the semi-hidden corners of the Amazon rain forest. Of course being cannibalistic makes a lot more sense when you think you're honoring the person you are eating by making them part of yourself and killing deformed infants makes total sense if you think they have no soul and are there to curse your tribe and yourself with sickness and death. But that's a totally different set of cross-cultural situations that I don't intend to get into in depth right now. It'll have to wait for another occasion.

I've long held the theory (also held, it turns out, by many well-known anthropologists) that weather and geography irrevocably shape culture. Have you ever noticed that the warmer a climate the "warmer" people are to one another and vice versa? This is obviously true even in the environs of Chicago and Pittsburgh, the cities I know the best in the US, where in the winter people hurry to and fro, hardly giving each other the time of day, but in the summer a whole different level of community thrives. Its easy to understand why, in a country that has warm weather all year round, people would be constantly more relate-to-able than in a country that is generally in the freezing range. For one thing, they don't have to hurry to get inside merely to survive. For another, they have a whole lot more freedom to dress, speak, and spend their time in a huge variety of ways including beaches, street corners, front porches and gates, etc without the restriction of having to wear countless layers of clothing. So... weather makes a difference.

São Paulo is in the medium range as far as weather is concerned - it gets as cold as the 50s, unlike most tropical areas, but spends most of its time in the 70s and up. It seldom but occasionally has days around 100 or over, kind of like Chicago (I think the hottest days of my life were when Chicago steadied out around 104 when I was living there one summer. The coldest were near-by in Wheaton when the weather hit a windchill of negative... 15? Or was it worse. WHO CARES when its that cold?) Lol. Once you're below 0 its pretty much all the same, as far as I'm concerned: absolutely miserable. Stay out of it unless you ABSOLUTELY HAVE to go to class. hehe.

Americans have the very positive quality of their participation in events not depending on the weather nearly as much as Brazilians, who are often discouraged from going to a non-essential commitment simply by the sight of rain clouds. Of course, Americans also drive almost everywhere and have very comfortable inside-of-building temperatures. Brazilians rarely drive and getting a bus in the rain can be anywhere from semi-unpleasant to downright miserable, depending on how hard the rain is, what angle its coming at (DOES an umbrella do ANY GOOD or not?), how long its been raining (are the sewers over-flowing yet) and how long the bus takes to come (invariably rain slows everything down in São Paulo - traffic is worse, there are more accidents, vehicles break-down more, etc). If for some reason it all of a sudden decided to reach 31 degrees Fahrenheit in SP, half the population - or more - would likely freeze to death, including some who are very wealthy. Who says there's any heating systems in buildings, even if they do occasionally include air conditioning? 50 degrees can all of a sudden seem very cold if you're IN the 50 degree weather 24/7 and if its unpleasantly laced with humidity that makes it sink seemingly irrevocably right into your pours no matter how much tea, coffee and hot chocolate you drink. Anyway, enough on that unpleasant topic :D. I greatly prefer heat, even when it is near-suffocating. Although 104 is DEFINITELY over the top. Definitely as miserable as 0 degree weather, but not as common or as deadly. I did have many fun moments at Wheaton playing broomball and throwing snow. Everything has its upsides. Thankfully. Have I ranted on weather enough? There's actually a REASON that its a much more common topic of conversation in Chicago than in São Paulo - in good old northern US of A its actually a factor of life or death!

Topography makes a HUGE difference not only because it effects weather but because it effects vegetation which effects commerce, trade, local economy and local eating habits. Topography also near-determines tourism or lack-there-of. Good luck taking tourists to somewhere downright un-interesting to look at or ugly. Not that there are many such places in the world - most places have their own type of beauty - but the flatlands of the midwest US just about qualify. Thankfully they are good for many other things, such as producing Chicago-ans and bread. No offense intended to small-town mid-westerners, many of who are very good friends of mine. Oh yes, that particular area of the US also produced Wheaton College, which pretty much made my grandparents and parents, and resultingly myself, much of who we are and the prairie path which is downright beautiful. So thank God for that and enough on that.

Back to Brazil... um... what else do you want to know? Maybe you can tell me and I can answer your questions, since I could go on about this for several hours... or... whatever you want... let me know. Possible topics include food, relational patters within families, dating patterns, church tendencies, why-people-relate-so-differently-generally-beyond-what-is-caused-by-the-weather, why Brazilians often find Americans shallow and Americans often find Brazilians over-whelming, why the gospel is currently finding much riper soil here than there, other than the poverty level, the reason for the difference in poverty level, in economies, in politics, in corruption and why Brazil has experimented with just about every type of government possible except communism. So... like I said, let me know what you're interested in and I'd enjoy sharing.

Later!

Love and blessings,

Rachel