Seminars

Long reputed as “the Brazilian Schubert,” Cândido Inácio da Silva (1799/1800-1838) stands as one of the most significant song-composers of nineteenth-century Brazil. This paper serves as a stark reminder, however, that Silva’s celebrated output of sentimental modinhas and humorous lundus emerged at the height of slavery in Brazilian lands. Drawing on newly digitized periodicals from the Brazilian National Library Foundation, the study moves from the city’s elegant salons to its prisons and violent streets to examine Silva’s entanglement with the institution of slavery--both as victim and as perpetrator. It further traces the imprint of this involvement within Silva’s musical works, with particular attention to the lundu-song pointedly titled “Minha Lília, quem desfruta” (“My Lilly, whoever takes pleasure in you”).

For over four decades, drug-trafficking gangs have monopolized violence and engaged in various forms of governance across hundreds of Rio de Janeiro's favelas (informal neighborhoods). Drawing on three years of ethnographic fieldwork, over 200 interviews with gang members and residents, 400 archival documents, and 20,000 anonymous hotline denunciations of gang members, this presentation, based on the recently published book, provides a comprehensive examination of the causes and consequences of these governance arrangements. It documents the variation in gang–resident relationships – from responsive ones in which gangs provide a reliable form of order and stimulate the local economy to coercive and unresponsive relations in which gangs offer residents few benefits – and then identifies the factors that account for this variation. The result is an unprecedented ethnographic study that provides participants in the seminar a unique, in-depth insight into the evolution of Rio de Janeiro’s drug-trafficking gangs, from their emergence in the 1970s to the present day.

In the specific context of contemporary societies, the intersection of religion and politics reveals complex and deeply polarized spheres. Our sociological analysis highlights that Brazil's public domain is a contested arena, where religion and politics are not monolithic but, on the contrary, fractured and dynamic, influenced by external and global (American and European) forces and shifting local-national socio-political and religious alliances. In this country, the Christian element (Catholic and Protestant) and the ideological Identitarian movement play a fundamental role in mediating the relationship, in the public and private spheres (Habermas), between the State, civil society, and historically marginalized groups. The polarized progressist left-wing and the ultra-conservative right-wings situation reinforces the need to increase the struggle for a Brazilian national identity, based on ethnic-racial, cultural and religious plurality and, above all, the guarantee of full respect for human rights.

In this seminar, I will present the results of a series of seminars and conferences held at Columbia University and in Brazil since 2013 that show the potential benefits of cross-sector partnerships of public and private executives – such as mayors, philanthropists, and NGOs -- aimed at controlling corruption in the Brazilian cases. In one, for example, a privately funded Brazilian organization whose members provide philanthropic capital and private sector expertise helped a city government they partner to revise their financial practices, increase community outreach, and better use their public dollars to improve and expand critical community services, such as public health and education. This and other examples will be used to present the theoretical framework used in my bestselling book with Howard Buffett, Social Value Investing --which is applicable in most parts of the world.

Migration flows can favour religious participation as well as the spread of religions and transnational processes. In fact, religions can be a resource and a dynamic space for transnational migrants to reconfigure belonging, well-being and a “home” in a context of uncertainty, marginalisation and adversity. In Japan, Afro-Brazilian religions – particularly Umbanda and Quimbanda – spread and evolved with the arrival of Brazilian immigrants and transnational processes of flows of people, spirits, materialities, worldviews, values and affections. After coming to Japan, many Brazilians start practicing Afro-Brazilian religions or deepen their adherence, frequently motivated by a desire for support, healing, meaning, affection, and a caring community. The majority of Brazilian migrants in Japan are Japanese descendants and their families who came for economic reasons with the intention of returning to Brazil in the near future. However, many of them end up extending their stay or starting a “circular migration” process. They frequently deal with difficulties of adaptation, downward social mobility, economic problems, ongoing extensions of their plans to return to Brazil, lack of affection, family separation, loneliness, and uncertainty. In this scenario, Afro-Brazilian religions offer a caring and healing space, through relationships within the religious community and with the spiritual world, a worldview that allows to face suffering and hardships, the guidance of embodied spirits, and a variety of “affective technologies” such as rituals, prayers, chants, images and herbal baths. Focussing on the lived experiences of the practitioners of Afro-Brazilian religions in Japan, I analyse how Afro-Brazilian religions help people build meaningful relationships and networks of support; find a sense of “home” and a purpose in life; receive emotional support and a way to cope with anxiety and better adjust to the context of migration. I also look at how they provide meaning, healing, guidance, and support for traumas, everyday struggles, and the prorogation of life plans.

In December 2020, the northeastern Brazilian city of Salvador launched its climate plan, articulating a vision for a socially inclusive, green, resilient, and low-carbon Salvador by 2049. This target date celebrates the city’s 500th anniversary and commemorates Salvador as the first capital of the Portuguese colonial empire. Based on 24 months of anthropological research in Salvador’s São Bartolomeu Conservation Unit, this presentation foregrounds Candomblé (an Afro-Brazilian religion) as its practitioners navigate the socio-political and spatial flux brought on by Salvador’s climate transformations. I propose Afro-religious praxes as a lens for deepening our understanding of the impacts of state-led urban climate adaptation, mitigation and conservation projects. I show how these projects appropriate and marginalize Afro-religious praxes and also reveal how practitioners unsettle them through ecologically based ancestral relationships with spiritual entities, such as Orixás.

Prainha do Canto Verde is a small fishing community located on the Atlantic coast of Brazil’s Northeastern state of Ceará. It is one of 28 traditional communities recognized under the Brazilian constitution. This means, among other things, that its rights to communal land ownership are protected. Brazil’s 1988 constitution is provisional in relation to the rights of traditional communities, however. Its provisions must be affirmed or may be modified by congress if not protected in court. The community of Prainha do Canto Verde is presently under siege. Local and foreign investors are attempting to purchase properties of individual residents to build a resort catering to tourists. The community organization has asked members of the law school of the Federal University of Ceará to prepare a report on the history of land ownership in Brazil and of their specific history, legal and human rights, and struggle for legal protection. The presentation will elaborate on the report and discuss options available requesting input from seminar members.

Partial results from a cooperative project on training Brazilian and Uruguayan teachers in the methodology of performance and audiovisual language is presented. First implemented in Uruguay, workshops were organized with teachers at the university and elementary education levels. The university professors represented a variety of disciplines at UDELAR, the largest and most important Uruguayan university; those from elementary education were from the Ceibal Project, an international reference for the inclusion of digital technologies in elementary education. The workshops sought to orient teachers to re-think their teaching in terms of audiovisual language, transforming the content of their lessons into scripts for presentation on camera. Analyzing the script prepared for presentation on camera, the teachers were encouraged to be critical and self-aware of how they taught their subject matter virtually instead of to students in person. In times of digital culture and artificial intelligence, it is ever more necessary for educators to learn new ways to present their subject matter to be used virtually either locally or globally. The presentation concludes by showing how the project promoted improved regional integration between Latin American universities.

“Apocalypse in the Tropics” is a powerful new film that examines the rise of and political participation of Evangelicals in Brazil focusing on their role in the 2018 election of Jair Bolsonaro as President Brazil and their support of him in 2022 when he was defeated by Luis Inácio Lula da Silva. The film makes clear the influence of North American Evangelicals on the Brazilian movement, especially those who believe that they (as they define Christianity) should take over and run the seven major institutions of society, especially the government. They also believe they should do it by force if necessary. In Brazil, Bolsonaro was their God anointed president who, they, along with large numbers of other Brazilinas, contend was robbed of the presidency in the 2022 election. They joined, often leading, Bolsonaro’s other supporters in the January 8th failed coup attempt. The film has significant implications not just for Brazil but also for what is happening in the United States.