A good understanding of people; socially, politically and economically yield the best relations in work place hence better productivity. Thanks to sociology that now different societies have been studied making it easier to know what a person’s social life is like. Every society has it social line of living which includes cultures, religion and on the wider scope political system. Most of these social aspects may remain unchanged for as long as they are practiced while others tend to be dynamic. The dynamism in a society changes these aspects or the changes in social aspects trigger changes in the society’s way of living. Now we take an example like Brazil. This is a country that’s located in the South America and inhabited by Brazilians and is the largest in Latin America.
Brazil is a unique country among other Latin American countries. The great difference seems to emanate from the fact that Brazil is made up of a blend of different ethnic groups. Portuguese, African and Native American culture are all blend to make one country. The Portuguese attempt to impose the Natives and the Africans with their cultures turned out to be more difficult than they thought. The locals accepted some and rejected other cultures. Most of the Natives pretended to have abandoned their culture only to fool the colonialist. Due to these circumstances Brazil remained multiethnic to date.
Many studies have been done to try and define a Brazilian with only most elites giving up since the society is so diverse. Brazilian writers like Joaquim Maria Machado tried to came up the ‘Brazilian character’ using the middle class who tried to copy the European lifestyles. Many authors tried too to explore this character with only little break through (Caldwell,Hellen, 40). Finally, most of the conclusions were draw on the basis of different characters living together and the only thing was to now study the conflicts between these multicultural practices.
In individual relations we find Brazilians even more different from their neighbors who too are Latin Americans. In other Latin American countries, Spanish is widely the lifestyle practiced. Spanish are more formal and stiff in their behaviors compared to the Portuguese speaking nations like Brazil. Brazilians are more conciliated and tolerate each other than the Spanish speaking nations. Cordiality is also highly practiced by the Brazilians to the extent of avoiding direct confrontation between themselves. This type of cultural behavior gives its credit to the fact that, during colonial era, Portuguese were lenient to the Natives and the Africans. Another possible cause of this behavior was the heightened resistance by the Native from being exploited which earned them the respect of the colonialist. With regards to this, these people are seen as informal, people of good nature and charming. The Brazilians respect and value each other at personal stage relations holding on to a lot of warmth and spontaneity (Freyre & Gilberto 56).
On the flip side, the Brazilians are exploitative as a whole when we put environment into the limelight. Authors like Viana Moog and Jorge tried to explain the conquistador way of thinking by colonizers. In their explanation, they termed colonialist as people who need to acquire wealth as fast as possible and then progress to the next colony. This made these elite to come up with the consequences that this might bring; which included selfishness, transience and discount of others together with Mother Nature. This led to environmental pollution and human degradation. Similarly, Brazilians do not believe in mutual benefit due to mistrust which most finds emanating from the sense that it’s a colonization or exploitation in disguise. Consequently, most of the rules are constantly evaded giving rise to major crackdowns by the authorities hence the mistrust continues to increase. People with common goals that are to benefit everybody find it hard to move on with the helpful plans and rules have to be even more rigid to push on with plans.
Brazilians have to be given credit to their ‘jeito’ behavior. This word characterizes people who tend to not comply in any way with any illegitimate authority, and that’s Brazilians. The world means bending the regulations or in other words finding an alternative way to going about something. Most times the behavior tends to give birth to vices like corruption. On the contrary, the culture can be of help and guide in solving problems without having to involve unwanted awareness.
Brazil is also widely known for their love of football but not many people know why the love is so deep. Not all for fame and money but Brazilians uses football as a way to let go frustrations and anger in their daily lives. The Carnival is also a treasured festival that gives the Brazilians time to forget their hardships and relax (Web, carnival-brazil). Imported and local music also plays a big role in helping people to relax and cool down in anger scenarios. Native music plays a greater role in the characterizing a Brazilian. Forro’ type of music is the widely done here followed by lambada and few doing padoge.
Political system in Brazil is a framework of federal government. The president is the head of state and runs the government as the head. The politics here is of a multi-party system where there is the ruling party and the opposition or a coalition. Political structure here is composed of a federal government. The States are the next divisions followed by the municipalities. The central government is run by the federal government and which is sub divided into three independent organs. The executive is one of the organs that are in control of the president and the cabinet advises him or her on how to go about it. Secondly is the Legislative which is its powers are exercised by the National Congress. Finally, Judiciary exercises the judicial powers and has a number of divisions.
The Brazilian political arena has its cultures which are regionally practiced. The north and northeast states tend to be more dependent on the political sweep of the capital Brasilia. The south east and south states do not endorse that much the Brasilia politics due to the civil wars that rocked Rio Grande do Sul due to political conflict. The conflicts were due to the political loyalty witnessed here in the south and south east states. In the Minas Gerais, a southeast state, politics here are cautiously conducted since politicians are known to be very cunning. Politicians in this state have the power to negotiate and buy people’s choice with their cunning ways or money. In west Brazil, states conduct their politics in a manner that is not to the heights of more advanced southeast states but the trend is changing due to immigration.
States on the southeast of Brazil namely Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo have and still are experiencing much rural-urban migration. This is highly contributed to the fact that these states are more industrialization (Baer & Werner, 62). The people in these areas have increased drastically causing a rise in political consciousness than in the north and western states. Due to the immense movement to urban areas the voting lot increased with a big margin. In 1960 only 30 percent were regarded as urban voters compared to 70 percent in 1994. The new urban people enhanced their political knowledge through media houses, schooling and joining labor unions.
Economically, Brazil has seen a lot of dynamism throughout its history especially after independence. The Brazilian economy is mainly supported by agricultural and industries. In early years agriculture was the main pillar in the economic activities of the Brazilians but that changed after the rapid rural- urban migration that saw to the massive industrialization. Most of agriculture is done in large scale with only a few practicing subsistence farming. Brazil is a large producer of coffee being the number one in the world (Baer & Werner, 94). Due the political stability and good policies the economy of this country has grown tremendously to clinch a slot in the G8 of the world (countries with big economies).
In the family docket, Brazilians tend to be more of the traditionalist. A typical marriage would consist of a man and his wife then the kids. Men are the head of the house and women are seen as the subordinates in a home. Although most of the marriages are typical, new treads have emerged with many women becoming employed and roles of subordination and master switch in scenarios that a husband is not working. The world is also proving to be harsher with increased single parenthood in Brazil.
Big cities in Brazil have some of the best living conditions in the South America. Although this is a complement to the Brazilian government, most of the fast growing metropolises are characterized by large informal settlements. These settlements mushroom so fast that the government finds it hard to provide better living conditions since the rural-urban is rampant. The gap that’s between the poor and the rich is always on the widening in the cities. Most of the people living in these slums work in industries which the required working conditions are not met. Brazilians have social classes; the rich class A, middle class B &C and the poor D & E.
The Brazilian constitution provides for equal privileges men and women but this is not always the case here; women have been paid less than men and disparities in country’s top jobs have been witnessed. But this has changed drastically with more women pushing for their rights. Brazilian women are now attending schools and becoming elites. Women have made much improvement their national issues involvement (Selwyn, 78). Politics has seen an influx of women and the recent mile stone is the woman who holds the presidency in Brazil. For the first time the Brazilians are being ruled by a woman. The children in Brazil are the future of the country and are enjoying free education to the university level if one gets lucky and secure a slot in the public funded college. Most of the elderly middle class have retired from their jobs and moved to rural areas and enjoys government money and pensions. The poor are mostly landless and still live in the cities even with the old age, sickly and with less to feed on every day.
Brazil is a country with a diverse religion practices which emerged due to the immigration of people here. The Portuguese came with them the Roman Catholic Church which till today holds the majority of the Brazilians. The Natives also have their religion which some still practice. Also the African has theirs too. Together with the natives their regions are regarded as Afro-Brazilian Religions. Due to constant movement more of the Pentecostal church have emerged Brazil. The constitution provides the nation with the right to worship hence making Brazil a multi-religion country.
Through the years the black and the indigenous have been marginalized in Brazil. In terms of opportunities, economic empowerment and social arena, the black and the natives has witnessed the least to be enjoying the great economic growth. In all arenas, political economic and social the latter has ragged behind but thanks to the constant push for equality in Brazil by the UNESCO.