A Ciência Jurídica

Brazilian culture

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The Brazilian Culture is the result of the miscegenation of several ethnic groups that participated in the formation of the Brazilian population.

The cultural diversity prevailing in Brazil is also a consequence of the great territorial extension and characteristics generated in each region of the country.

The white individual, who participated in the formation of Brazilian culture, was part of several groups that arrived in the country during the colonial period.

Besides the Portuguese, the Spaniards came from 1580 to 1640 during the Iberian Union (a period in which Portugal was under the dominion of Spain).

During the Dutch occupation in the north-east, from 1630 to 1654, Flemings or Dutch came, who remained in the country, even after the resumption of the area by the Portuguese. In the colony, the French, English and Italians also contributed.

However, it was the Portuguese who received the fundamental cultural heritage, where the history of Portuguese immigration in Brazil is confused with our own history.

It was they, the settlers, who were responsible for the initial formation of the Brazilian population. This was due to the process of miscegenation of African Indians and Negroes from 1500 to 1808. For three centuries the Portuguese were the only Europeans who could freely enter Brazil.

Indigenous Culture

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There were many contributions of the Brazilian Indians to our cultural and social formation. From the ethnic point of view, they contributed to the emergence of a typical Brazilian individual: the caboclo (white and Indian mestizo).

In the cultural formation, the Indians contributed with the vocabulary, which has numerous terms of indigenous origin, as pindorama, anhanguera, ibirapitanga, Itamaracá, among others. With folklore, the legend remained as the curupira, saci-pererê, boitatá, iara, among others.

The influence in cooking has become more present in certain regions of the country where some indigenous groups have managed to take root. An example is the northern region, where typical dishes are present, among them the tucupi, tacacá and maniçoba.

Roots such as cassava are used to prepare flour, tapioca and beiju. Various hunting and fishing utensils, such as the claw and the hook. Finally, various domestic utensils were left as an inheritance, among them, the net, the gourd and the trough.

                                                              Portuguese Culture

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Portugal was the European country that exerted more influence in the formation of Brazilian culture.

The Portuguese carried out a cultural transplantation for the colony, highlighting the Portuguese language, spoken throughout the country, and the religion marked by festivals and processions.

The administrative institutions, the type of construction of the villages, towns and cities and agriculture are part of the Portuguese heritage.

In the Brazilian folklore is evident the great number of Portuguese celebrations and dances that were incorporated to the country. Among them, the cavalcade, the fandango, the festivals June (one of the main festivals of the culture of the northeast) and the booze of the ox.