African Brazilians, Color Terminology

Color is one of the crucial social variables of Brazil and constitutes one of the unique characteristics of Latin American culture. Like the terms "race" and "ethnicity," skin color is an imperfect concept used to identify people in Latin America. It is but one of the characteristics used. Other physical traits, such as hair and facial features like the shape of the nose, are also employed. In addition, an identification determined by physical appearance can be modified by such social variables as wealth and education.

Color terms utilized in Brazil describe the almost infinite shadings that result from race mixing among Indians, Europeans, and Africans, and among the mixtures themselves. During the colonial period, racist perceptions and medical notions combined to create multiple hierarchies. One was based on the idea that pure races were better than mixed races inasmuch as the latter, it was believed, contained the worst characteristics of the parents. The other, and more common, hierarchy was based on social usage that placed whites at the top of the social hierarchy and blacks or Indians at the bottom and arranged other groups by the degree to which they appeared white. "Purity of blood," which was used to describe whites of demonstrable European ancestry, was essential for entry into the highest stratum of society.

Race mixing is not unique to Latin America. But whereas other societies, such as that of the United States, have acknowledged a comparatively limited range of racially mixed groups, Latin American societies have historically recognized many differences. The result has been a plethora of racial identities, many of them conveying negative images. Over the years, hundreds of racial terms have been used in Brazil, but the most common have included branco, white; branco da terra, white of the land, a person whose whiteness was recognized only in a specific area; moreno, a light-skinned mulatto; pardo or mulato, referring originally to the offspring of one white and one black parent; mestiço, Mameluco, or Caboclo, an Indian-white mixture; cafuzo, a black and Indian mixture; crioulo, a Brazilian-born black; negro or prêto, a dark-skinned or African-born black; and indigo, Indian. Often the same term is applied to different groups in different parts of Brazil. Cabra, for example, was used to describe a very light-skinned mulatto, or a mixture of Indian, black, and white, or of Indian and black.

The existence of such a range of identified color groups is complemented by several other crucial characteristics. First is the mutability of such labels. Because part of the label is socially and culturally defined, a person's identity can change over time. Second, the existence of such fine gradations prevents an objective definition of such labels. While during the colonial period efforts were made to describe and define each possible combination, in reality this process was a failure. Instead, the labeling is often done by the observer on the basis of the relationship of the personal characteristics of the observer and the observed. The result is the imprecise definition of groups. This ambiguity has served effectively to prevent political organizing around racial identification.

Such ambiguity does not mean the absence of prejudice. Rather, it points to color-conscious societies in which the phenotypical appearance and culture of individuals is extremely important. Thus the differences among people make it difficult to redress social injustices.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Charles Wagley, "On the Concept of Social Race in the Americas," in Contemporary Cultures and Societies of Latin America, edited by Dwight B. Heath and Richard N. Adams (1965), pp. 531-545.

Marvin Harris, "Referential Ambiguity in the Calculus of Brazilian Racial Identity," in Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 26 (Spring 1970): 1-14.

Robert M. Levine, Race and Ethnic Relations in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Historical Dictionary and Bibliography (1980).

Thomas M. Stephens, Dictionary of Latin American Racial and Ethnic Terminology (1989).

Additional Bibliography

Appelbaum, Nancy P., Anne S. Macpherson, and Karin Alejandra Rosemblatt, eds. Race and Nation in Modern Latin America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003.

Hanchard, Michael George. Racial Politics in Contemporary Brazil. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999.

Stephens, Thomas M. Dictionary of Latin American Racial and Ethnic Terminology. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1989.

                                         Donald Ramos