BRAZIL: ETHNOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES Fall 2011 Anthropology 427/627 Instructor:

Professor John Burdick

Office Hours:

Mon. and Wed., 4-5 pm or by appointment

Office:

Maxwell Hall 209

Telephone:

315-443-3822

Email:

[email protected]

Class meetings:

Tues and Thurs, 11:00 am-12:20 pm

Classroom:

Eggers 070

Brazil is the largest country in South America, the world's fifth largest country, and the seventh largest economy in the world (at over $2 trillion GDP). It is also the country with one of the highest levels of income inequality, in which the richest 10% absorb over half of all income. Through readings, discussion, films, and your own research projects, this course will greatly increase your knowledge of key themes and issues facing Brazilian society, including issues of race, poverty, violence, gender inequality, and economic development. We will focus much of the course on urban Brazil, but will dedicate a significant part to trends in Amazonia. Because this is a course in anthropology, course readings are heavily weighted toward ethnography, that is, qualitative research based on long-term fieldwork. 1

Learning Outcomes Through assigned readings, seminar discussions, student presentations, short analytical papers, and your final research paper, you will come out of this course 1) understanding how anthropologists have analyzed major issues facing contemporary Brazilian society: race and racism; urban violence; the relationships between religion, gender and sexuality; and the changing political economy of the Amazonian region; 2) understanding the strengths and weaknesses of ethnographic research in shedding light on these issues; 3) understanding how inequality and the perception of injustice are related to popular organization, mobilization, and policy change; 4) with improved skill in analyzing why particular arguments are strong and others are weak 5) with improved skill in presenting and speaking in public Academic Integrity The Syracuse University Academic Integrity Policy holds students accountable for the integrity of the work they submit. Students should be familiar with the Policy and know that it is their responsibility to learn about instructor and general academic expectations with regard to proper citation of sources in written work. The policy also governs the integrity of work submitted in assignments as well as the veracity of signatures on attendance sheets and other verifications of participation in class activities. Serious sanctions can result from academic dishonesty of any sort. For more information, see Academic Integrity Office, http://academicintegrity.syr.edu Students with disabilities/special needs Students who are in need of disability-related academic accommodations must register with the Office of Disability Services (ODS), 804 University Avenue, Room 309, 315-443-4498. Students with authorized disability-related accommodations should provide a current Accommodation Authorization Letter from ODS to the instructor and review those accommodations with the instructor. Accommodations are not provided retroactively; therefore, planning for accommodations as early as possible is necessary. For more information, see Office of Disability Services, http://disabilityservices.syr.edu

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Course Requirements and Grading

Attendance & participation

15%

Reading responses

25%

5 papers (10% each)

50%

2 presentations (5% each)

10%

1) Attendance (7.5%). • • •

An attendance sheet will be circulated during each class meeting. Excused absences are for documented illnesses, major out-of-town rites of passage, funerals, and direct participation in SU team events. They are not for anything else. Grading of attendance: 1-2 unexcused absences..................................................................................................A 3 unexcused absences....................................................................................................B 4 unexcused absences....................................................................................................C 5 unexcused absences....................................................................................................D 6 or more unexcused absences.......................................................................................F

2) Participation (7.5%) • •

•

This is a seminar, not a lecture course. That means the time we spend in the classroom will be devoted to discussing readings, films, and experiences. When you participate directly in discussion, rather than just listen, you come to understand the readings better. You must come to class having read the assigned readings prepared to share your responses to them. This is a heavy reading course; indeed, the core of the course is your engagement with the readings. I will NOT be lecturing in the class, so you really need to be focusing on those readings. If you are not, the class will be a drag; if you are, it will be enjoyable, rewarding, and challenging. Approach the readings with the following general questions in mind. As you read, take notes in response to these questions, and come to class with your notes, ready to discuss: 1) What key points, claims, or arguments in the articles do you find particularly important, intriguing, compelling or significant, and why? 2) What questions does each reading provoke in you? What are some questions you think would be good for the class to discuss in response to the readings? 3) When there are two readings, what is the relationship between them? Do they complement or complicate each other? 3

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4) How do the readings relate to the other materials we have already discussed in class? 5) Do either of the readings remind you of anything from your own experience or other reading? 6) Do you have any criticisms of either of the readings? If so, what are they? Take notes during class, noting useful points. I expect you to incorporate points made in class into your papers. I will pay attention to everyone’s level of participation. I expect you to use the classroom to hone your skills in making your ideas, questions and doubts understood. I do not expect you to be brilliant, nor do I expect you to participate constantly; I do expect you to engage regularly and do your best to articulate points, questions, and doubts.

3) Reading responses (25%) Each of you is responsible for handing in two double-spaced pages of reading response to me 10 (ten) times over the course of the semester. You will be divided into two groups, “A” and “B”. On the dates specified, members of each group (“A” or “B”) will hand in their 2-page reading responses, at the start of class. This is a chance for you to develop your thinking about what we read each week, to reflect on the readings, to follow a special interest throughout the course. In the response, you should think about the following questions: 1) What key points, claims, or arguments in the articles do you find particularly important, intriguing, compelling or significant, and why? 2) What questions does each reading provoke in you? What are some questions you think would be good for the class to discuss in response? 3) When there are two readings, what is the relationship between them? Do they complement or complicate each other? 4) How do the readings relate to the other materials we have already discussed? 5) Do either of the readings remind you of anything from your own experience or other reading? If so, what do they remind you of? What new light do they shed on those experiences or reading, and vice versa? 6) Do you have any criticisms of either of the readings? If so, what are they? A copy must be handed to me in class, and you must bring a copy for yourself to refer to during class discussion. Here are the dates for handed-in reading responses for group “A”: 1. Tues., Sept 6 Color inequality 2. Tues., Sept 13 Self-esteem and mobilization 3. Tues., Sept 20 The ethnography of affirmative action 4. Thurs., Sept 29 Drug traffickers and social relations in the favela 5. Thurs., Oct 6 The social power of hip hop 6. Thurs., Oct 20 The urban squatters’ movement and the power of art 7. Tues., Nov 1 Afro-diasporic religion and sexuality 8. Tues., Nov 8 Christianity and female power 9. Tues., Nov 15 Indigenous production for the market 10. Tues., Nov 29 Changing identities of rubber tappers 4

Here are the dates for handed-in reading responses for members of group “B”: 1. Thurs., Sept 8 The politics of hair 2. Thurs., Sept 15 US-Brazil connections 3. Thurs., Sept 22 The ethnography of affirmative action 4. Tues., Oct 4 Music, violence, and identity 5. Tues., Oct 18 Afro-Reggae and strategies for social change 6. Thurs., Oct 27 Iemanjá, women, and power 7. Thurs., Nov 3 The spirits of umbanda and gender struggles 8. Thurs., Nov 10 Christianity, AIDS, and homosexuality 9. Thurs., Nov 17: Ecotourism 10. Thur., Dec 1 Babaçu nuts, identity, and gender struggles Each response is worth 2.5% of your final grade. Responses will be graded “A”, ‘B”, or “C”: an “A” means that you have shown clarity, seriousness, thoroughness and originality of thought; “B” means you have shown clarity and seriousness, but less thoroughness or originality; “C” means that I judge you are showing less clarity and seriousness; and no or little thoroughness or originality. 4) Five papers (50%) Near the start of each segment of the course, I will hand out an assignment that will pose a question or questions about the segment. You job is to write a 5-page essay that addresses one of these questions. In the essay, you must refer to readings, films, and class discussion a specific number of times (I will specify how many in the assignment): Paper 1, on Brazilian color inequality and struggles to change it: due Tuesday, Sept 27 Paper 2, on favela violence and struggles to cope and/or change it via popular culture, due Tuesday, October 25 Paper 3, on the connections between spirituality, gender, and sexuality, due Tuesday, November 15 Paper 4, on land, labor and capital in the Amazon, due Monday, December 11

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Paper 5, on a social struggle in Brazil that interests you and that we have not analyzed in class, due Friday, December 15. For this paper, you will read additional ethnographic and analytical material on one of the following topics (or others that you choose in consultation with me). I will meet with all of you by end of the first week in October to determine which theme you will write on in your final paper (and about which you will make your second presentation). • • • • • • • • • • •

Transnational feminism The Landless Workers Movement Participatory budgeting Neighborhood associations Gay rights movement Environmental movement Indigenous rights movement Anti-domestic violence movement Sex workers’ organizing movement Youth movement Urban labor movement

5) Presentations (10%) Each of you will make two (2) in-class presentations. Each is worth 5% of your final grade. Presentation 1 On Thursday, Sept 1, you will pick a date from hat & tell me the date you picked. The presentation readings are posted on Blackboard for each week under the rubric “Student Presentation”. In preparation for your presentation, you are responsible for: 1) doing the supplemental reading posted on Blackboard (and identified on the syllabus) 2) finding at least one additional document (on the Internet or library) about the issue – e.g., a news story, short text or article, blog, website, video, documentary, clip, etc., that illustrates something about the issue, and either making copies for the class or incorporating it into a Power Point 3) preparing the presentation. This should be 10-15 minutes long. In the presentation you do the following: a. explain the key points of the supplemental reading, and how it relates to the assigned joint readings. Does the reading extend or complement the joint readings in some way, and if so how? Does it challenge, complicate or contradict the joint readings, and if so how? Does it reveal something interesting about how to conceptualize the topic that goes beyond the joint assigned readings? b. End the presentation by articulating some of the key questions that the supplemental reading and your additional research have raised for you, and that you think it would be good for the class to think about together. c. Be sure to concentrate on the article’s contributions; don’t spend most of your time criticizing it 6

d. During the presentation, be sure to bring in the additional discoveries you have made on the web about the topic, and show us the image, clip, document, etc that you have found. 4) Following the presentation, we will have a 10-15 minute discussion. This is an important part of the presentation. I encourage your audience to make three kinds of comments during discussion: a) address one or more of the questions you have raised; b) comment on what your presentation suggests or reveals about the topic, either in relation to the assigned readings, other readings, or other experiences they have had; and/or c) pose questions to you about the topic you have reported on. Your job is to reply to each student who comments: either by addressing their question directly (if you do not know the answer, just say “I don’t know”); more broadly by connecting it to something you do know; or by using the comment or question to think more deeply out loud about the topic. Presentation 2 In mid-October, we will pass the hat again to see when you will do your final presentation – this one on your class project. I will pass out guide-sheets to help you plan your 10-minute presentation. Project presentations will be on the following dates. • • • • • •

Tues., Nov 15 Thurs., Nov 17 Tues., Nov 29 Thur., Dec 1 Tues., Dec 5 Thurs., Dec 7

(2 presentations) (2 presentations) (2 presentations) (2 presentations) (2 presentations) (6 presentations)

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I.

The Brazilian color/racial system: inequality and change

Thurs., Sept 1: Seeing the system •

Watch documentary: o Henry Louis Gates, Jr., “Brazil: A Racial Paradise?” (PBS, 50 min)

Tues., Sept 6 Color inequalities Please read: o Donna Goldstein, “Interracial Sex and Racial Democracy in Brazil” o John Burdick, Blessed Anastacia, 26-32; 38-44 o Robin Sheriff, Dreaming Equality, 135-149 Student Presentation: Color in the workplace o Robin Sheriff, Dreaming Equality, 95-114 o John Burdick, Blessed Anastacia, 44-50

Thurs., Sept 8 Beauty politics Please read: o Kia Caldwell, Negras in Brazil, pp. 81-106 o Patricia Pinho, “Afro-Aesthetics in Brazil”, 266-289 Student Presentation: Cosmetic surgery and race o Alexander Edmonds, “Triumphant Miscegenation”

Tues., Sept 13 Self-esteem and mobilization Please read o Kia Caldwell, Negras in Brazil, pp. 107-176 Student Presentation: Black women and local neighborhood struggles o Keisha Khan Perry, “Social Memory and Black Resistance”

Thurs., Sept 15 US-Brazil connections and diaspora consciousness Please read: o Paulina Alberto, “When Rio Was Black” o John Burdick, “A Voice So Full of Pain and Power”: Black Gospel and Blackness”, chapter 2 in The Color of Sound (NYU Press) Student Presentation: US Roots tourism Patricia Pinho, “African-American Roots Tourism in Brazil”

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Tues., Sept 20 The ethnography of affirmative action, 1 Please read: o André Cicalo, Urban Encounters: Racial university quotas, racial inequality and black identities in Brazil (Our class has exclusive access to this soon-to-be published manuscript!), 7-89 Student Presentation: Affirmative action in the workplace o Ricardo Lorenzo, “Untangling the transnational social”

Thurs., Sept 22 The ethnography of affirmative action, 2 Please read: o André Cicalo, Urban Encounters, 90-197 Student Presentation: Quotas and models in São Paulo  Paulo Vinicius Baptista da Silva and Fulvia Rosemberg, “Black and White People in the Brazilian Media: Racist Discourse and Practices of Resistance”  “The Brazil Files: Race & the Runway – São Paulo Fashion Week Dabbles in Color”  “Though Brazil’s Majority is Nonwhite, Model Scouts only Seek Blonds”  “Brazilian Fashion Event Faces Protest For Blocking Out Non-White Models”  “Brazil's catwalks are too white, say protesters”  “Racism and the media” (Wide Angle) What is the law on ethnoracial representation in fashion shows? How is it being applied? What are some of the reactions? What difference do you think this can make in Brazilian society?

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II.

Everyday violence and popular culture in the favelas

Tues., Sep 27 Death in the favelas •

Documentary: “News from the Front of a Private War”

Thurs., Sept 29 Drug traffickers and social relations in the favela •

Please read: o Ben Penglase, “States of Insecurity: Everyday Emergencies, Public Secrets, and Drug Trafficker Power in a Brazilian Favela” o Donna Goldstein, “State Terror, Gangs, and Everyday Violence in Rio de Janeiro”

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Student Presentation: The gendering of gangs’ social power o Ben Penglase, ‘The Owner of the Hill: Masculinity and Drug-Trafficking in Rio de Janeiro”

Tues., Oct 4 Music, violence, and identity •

Please read: o Paul Sneed, “Favela Utopias” o Paul Sneed, “Bandidos de Cristo: Representations of the Power of Criminal Factions in Rio's Proibidão Funk Student Presentation: The battle between funk and gospel o Martijn Oosterbaan, “Sonic Supremacy: Sound, Space and Charisma in a Favela in Rio de Janeiro”

Thurs., Oct 6 The social power of hip hop •

Please read: o Derek Pardue, “Making Territorial Claims” (from Ideologies of Marginality) o Derek Pardue, “Place Markers”

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Student Presentation: Hip hop as popular education o Derek Pardue, “Hip hop as pedagogy”

Tues., Oct 11 No class (Professor Burdick in Brazil) 10

Thurs., Oct 13 The rise of Afro-Reggae Watch: “Favela Rising”

Tues., Oct 18 Afro-Reggae and strategies for social change •

Please read: o George Yudice, “Parlaying Culture into Social Justice” o Culture is Our Weapon, “Three Survivors Stories” and “A Different Way”

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Student Presentation: Afro-Reggae and the Police Project o Silvia Ramos, “Brazilian responses to violence and new forms of mediation: the case of the Grupo Cultural Afro-Reggae and the experience of the project ‘Youth and the Police’”. Look deeper into this project.

Thurs., Oct 20 The urban squatters’ movement and the power of art •

Please read: o Maria Osava, “Homeless take Fate into Their Own Hands” o Carla Melo, “Performing sem-teto: the transversal tactics of artivismo and the squatters' movement”

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Student Presentation: Can the roofless movement be an urban planner? o Marcelo Souza, “Social movements as critical planning agents”

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III. Spirituality, gender, and sexuality Tues., Oct 25 The spirits of umbanda and candomblé Documentary: “Slave of the Spirit”

Thurs., Oct 27 Iemanjá, women, and power •

Please read: o Rachel Harding, “É a Senzala: Slavery, Women and Embodied Knowledge in Afro-Brazilian Candomblé” o Claudia do Rosário, “The Ladies Of The Water : Iemanjá, Oxum, Oiá And A Living Faith”

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Student Presentation: Candomblé and women’s mobilization o Keisha Khan Perry, ‘If We Didn’t Have Water”

Tues., Nov 1 Afro-diasporic religion and sexuality •

Please read: o David Sparks, “Dancing the River: Fluidity of Eros and Gender in Music and Dance of African Diasporic Spiritual Traditions” o Peter Fry, “Male Homosexuality and Spirit Possession in Brazil”

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Student Presentation: Candomblé and the fight against HIV/AIDS o Jonathan Garcia, Richard G. Parker, “Resource mobilization for health advocacy: Afro-Brazilian religious organizations and HIV prevention and control”

Thurs., Nov 3 The spirits of umbanda and gender struggles •

Please read: o Kelly Hayes, “Wicked Women and Femmes fatales” o Kelly Hayes, “Caught in the Crossfire” Student Presentation: Oxúm o Lindsay Hale, “Mama Oxúm: Reflections of Gender and Sexuality in Brazilian Umbanda” [Also look on web for stuff on Oxum]

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Tues., Nov 8 Christianity and women’s power •

Please choose 2 o John Burdick, “Redefining Mary: Women’s Changing Roles at Home and in the Church” o John Burdick, “The Progressive Church, Domestic Violence, and Abortion” o John Burdick, “Gossip and Secrecy” o Miriam Rabelo et al, “Cultivating the Senses and Giving in to the Sacred” Student Presentation: Christianity and teen pregnancy o Liza Steele, “A Gift from God”: Adolescent Motherhood and Religion in Brazilian Favelas

Thurs., Nov 10 Christianity and HIV/AIDS •

Please choose 2: o “Divine targets: youth at the centre of Catholic and Pentecostal responses to HIV and AIDS in Brazil” o “Vulnerable salvation: Evangelical Protestant Leaders and Institutions, Drug Use, and HIV and AIDS in the Urban Periphery of Rio de Janeiro” o “Strange Bedfellows: The Catholic Church and Brazilian National AIDS Program in the Response to HIV/AIDS in Brazil Student Presentation: Christianity and homosexuality o Garcia et al, “Local Impacts”

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IV. Labor, nature, capital and emerging identities in Amazonia Tues., Nov 15 Indigenous production for the market o Please read: o Brian Burke, “Cooperatives for “Fair Globalization”? Indigenous People, Cooperatives, and Corporate Social Responsibility in the Brazilian Amazon” o Laura C Zanotti, “Economic Diversification and Sustainable Development: The Role Non-timber Forest Products Play in the Monetization of Kayapó Livelihoods” o Project presentations

Thurs., Nov 17: Ecotourism o Please read: o Mirjam Ros-Tonen and Anna Werneck, “Small-scale Tourism Development in Brazilian Amazonia: The Creation of a ‘Tourist Bubble’ o Laura C Zanotti and Janet Chernela, “Conflicting Cultures of Nature: Ecotourism, Education and the Kayapó of the Brazilian Amazon” o Project presentations

Tues., Nov 29 Changing identities of rubber tappers o “Rubber Jungle” o Please read: o Vadjunec and Schmink, “Rubber tapper citizens” •

Project presentations

Thur., Dec 1 Babaçu nuts, identity, and gender struggles • • •

Photos from Bethany Bloomston Documentary segment, “Quilombo Country” Please read: o Noemi Porro, “Traditional communities in the Brazilian Amazon and the emergence of new political identities” o Noemi Porro, “Facing Globalization”

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Project presentations 14

Tues., Dec 5 New indigenous identities and the struggle for land •

Please read: o Omaira Bolaños, “Reconstructing indigenous ethnicities: the Arapium and Jaraqui peoples of the lower Amazon, Brazil” o _____________, Redefining identities, redefining landscapes: indigenous identity and land rights struggles in the Brazilian Amazon •

Project presentations

Thurs., Dec 7 Remaining project presentations

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