Cyber_Bulling

Running head: The Multi-Cultural influence of My Brazilian Heritage. Multi-Culture of Brazil Leanndra Mix Ryan Torngren Introduction to Sociology 101, Fall 2012 October 3, 2012 Abstract The culture of Brazil presents a very diverse nature reflecting an ethnic and cultural mixing occurred in the colonial period involving mostly Native Americans, Portuguese and Africans. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Italian, German, Spanish, Ukrainians, Polish, Arab and Japanese immigrants settled in Brazil and played an important role in its culture, creating a multicultural and multiethnic society Multi-Culture of Brazil The culture of each country affects how the people perform certain tasks. The growth of international corporations and international trade forces decision-makers to consider how the people with whom they must deal in other countries make decisions and why. Brazil is case in point. It is a country with a very different history from our own, different social and cultural traditions, and different views of the nature of business and the nature of decision-making. These are the issues we must consider as we try to communicating or dealing with the people of or from Brazil. As Lane and DiStefano (1992) note, one result of not considering these questions can be culture shock, which reduces performance at least during the period of adjustment. To some extent, disorientation is natural and inevitable, but the reasons are known and can be controlled: The normal assumptions that the manager uses in his or her home culture to interpret perceptions and to communicate intentions no longer works (Lane and DiStefano, 1992, 47). Brazil is a gigantic country that offers startling geographic and socioeconomic contrasts. The culture is marked by the use of Portuguese as the official language, and the mixture of Portuguese and Brazilian cultures makes this area subtly different from its neighbors with their Hispanic heritage. Brazil is the largest Roman Catholic nation in the world. The nation is also made up of many immigrant groups from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including millions of Italians, Germans, Slavs, Arabs, Japanese, and others, all of whose descendants today speak Portuguese (Nyrop, 1983, xxi). Dickenson (1982) notes that since World War II, Brazil has become less dependent on Europe through a process of economic growth and diversification. Dickenson is referring largely to economic dependence on Europe and North America here and finding that it has been reduced, but this reduction in dependence has also taken place in terms of social attitude. The people of Brazil today feel a great pride and confidence in their national culture, after four centuries during which the people looked to Europe for inspiration. The Portuguese discovered Brazil and settled there, and over time the Portuguese language spoken in Brazil became a softer and more musical version of the mother tongue. The Portuguese brought Catholicism to the region. The culture of Brazil was altered somewhat by the arrival of the first African slaves, who brought with them their own cultures, which insinuated elements of the African heritage into Brazilian culture, including music, religious elements, dance, food, and more. Brazilian society in the contemporary age has been marked by pronounced regional and ethnic diversity. Descendants of Portuguese settlers, Amerindians, and African slaves comprise the main cultural groups. The heritage from the Portuguese has been disproportionate to the number of Portuguese settlers because they were colonizers and left their mark on the nation's political system and social institutions. This is reflected in language, kinship, and religion. The Amerindian influence is felt most strongly in the Amazon Basin; the African influence is strongest in the Northeast; and in the Southeast the influence has come from the many settlers from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, particularly in the Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo areas. The latter groups remain a mainstay of industrial development (Nyrop, 1983, 83). Decision-making in Brazil is much affected by the particular family structure that marks this society. Brazil has a "cult of the family," for instance, that stands out even among family-oriented nations in Latin America. The family has been probably the single most important institution in the formation of Brazilian society, and the ideal of the family is defined in terms of the traditional kin relations of upper class families. Thus it does not describe urban middle-class families or those of the lower class, but still it remains a cultural ideal reflected in the ways Brazilians conceptualize and evaluate a range of personal and social relations. The traditional upper class family was patriarchal, and the Brazilians took from Portugal the practice of excluding women. The most significant kin group remains the parenteral, a diffuse group comprising the relatives an individual recognizes from both families. The parental may include hundreds of people, and typically the kin group focuses less on strict rules of descent and more on relationship to an illustrious ancestor (Nyrop, 1983, 108). The parental serves as an interest group. Lesser members in the group bask in the reflected glory of the prominent and also share through sinecures and the like in the latter's wealth and influence. The highest duty for the individual is family loyalty. Nepotism is the first obligation of the family member, and failure to help one's kin in their need diminishes one's stature. Godparent hood extends and reinforces the web of kinship, and the relationship can be used to strengthen a preexisting one or to bring other parenteral into a pseudo-kinship relationship. Kinship functions differently for the lower orders because the very existence of a parenteral presupposes wealth and influence in some degree. Among lower class Brazilians, the larger extended kin groups have atrophied in part from lack of resources, and in part because of the great mobility of the populace. However, within the constraints of distance, relatives do assist one another. In rural areas most neighborhoods of small farmers are composed of groups of interrelated families. The obligations extended kin owe one another are not very well defined in the general population (Nyrop, 1983, 110-111). Within the individual household, rights and duties are clearly stipulated. The husband owes his wife and children protection and sustenance, and they in turn owe him deference and obedience. Children are expected to care for their parents in their old age. Parents should see their children started in life, with assistance that can take many forms, such as education, land, or money to begin a business. The nuclear family is the typical household unit, and in most of the country the ideal is for a married couple to set up housekeeping as soon as possible, while in the South a three-generation household is not uncommon. There are three principal kinds of marriage--civil, religious, and common law--and only civil marriage is recognized by the state and confers legal status on the marriage. Civil marriage ensures the family social security benefits and the children a portion of the inheritance. It establishes the legal responsibility of both parties in regard to each other and to their children, and it determines certain property rights as agreed to by both spouses. Divorce has been legal since 1977 (Nyrop, 1983, 110-111). The Brazilian economy has grown greatly since World War II, but there are still lingering and persistence problems, and to a degree these problems have either been caused or exacerbated by the strategy of economic growth pursued by the Brazilian authorities through the prevailing constellation of economic policies. Industrialization is promoted by policy measures concentrating efforts and resources in the industrial sector, generally at the expense of the agricultural sector. The Brazilian government takes an activist role in the economy, and the prevailing governmental economic activity tends to complement rather than compete with the private sector. Governmental influence in the economic sector is increasing (Tyler, 1981, 13). The government undertook a reshaping of the economy in 1981 with the principal short term objective being to alleviate pressures on the balance of payments, sacrificing temporarily the growth in national product. Brazil has been suffering through the tensions that go with modernization. For Brazil, modernization has been equivalent to industrialization (Salazar-Carrillo and Fendt, 1985, 1-2). Concern for regional inequality has also characterized national planning for the last two decades. Federal strategies have been intended to secure national and regional development, and many of the states of the federation have themselves formulated development programs to promote economic advance. The state has been a major agent in determining the nature of the nation's development process, but its commitment to a capitalist system has also meant the involvement of the private sector. Much of the industrialization has been in the hands of multinational corporations. There has been considerable change in Brazil as a result of encouraging economic advance. The structure of the economy has been diversified, for instance, and Brazil has ranked the eighth largest market in the Western world. This process has introduced structures into the landscape that are regarded as symbolic and characteristic of economic development, and this has also prompted other changes including the expansion of cities and of the urban population (Dickenson, 1982, 105-106). Some of the differences in decision-making styles in Brazil from those in the United States derive from different levels of development--Brazil makes strong use of direct government control of the economy because that economy is in such dire straits. The leaders in society tend to coalesce around strong extended family units that stand almost as interest groups, unlike any extended family structure in the U.S. At heart, though, decision-making in Brazil is motivated by the same need to solve problems, improve economic and social conditions, and cope with international concerns, interests, trade, and opportunity. References Carrillo, J., & Júnior, R. (1985). The Brazilian economy in the eighties. New York: Pergamon Press. Dickenson, J. P. (1982). Brazil. London: Longman. Lane, H. W., & DiStefano, J. J. (1992). International management behavior: from policy to practice (2nd ed.). Boston: PWS-Kent Pub. Co.. Nyrop, R. (1971). Brazil, a country study, 1983. Washington DC.: The US Army.. Tyler, W. (1981). The brazilian industrial economy. Lexington: Lexington-Books. Table 1 Type the table text here in italics; start a new page for each table [Insert table here] Figure Captions Figure 1. Caption of figure [Figures – note that this page does not have the manuscript header and page number]