Author Archives: Soumya Shrivastava

Black behind the ears – Review

Black behind the ears is an advanced historical and ethnographic examination of Dominican identity development in the Dominican Republic and the United States. For what seems like an eternity, the whole nationality of Dominican Republic defined themselves as “not black”. Ginette E. B. Candelario uses variety of historical writings as well as statistical data and ethnographic research to study the construction of Dominican identity. This book displays the ways in which Dominicans have negotiated their identity to break the social and symbolic orders.

Candelario derives wide range of sources, from the historical to the institutional and ethnographic. She concentrates her examination within four specific ranges of what she terms “identity displays”: travel narratives, the museum, the beauty shop, and the female body. Furthermore, she also focuses on the cities in the United States that have a high number of Dominicans. According to Candelario these geographic sites are uniquely related to the larger Dominican population, however also reflecting the boarder issues that are displayed by Dominican identity. The travel narratives from the Dominican Republic and Dominican travelers draw on uncertain displays of relationship to blackness to locate Dominicans in local establishments.

In addition theses travel writings have had ethnographic purposes historically similar to those of metropolitan museums. It was meant to offer a foreign perspective to other audience in cities. Candelario similarly uses hair texture as a way to describe racial perception in everyday life in Dominican Republic and argues that hair is the most important aspect that she focused on this book. Since hair was the emphasis on indigeneity as the basis for Dominican identity.

Black behind the ears relates to our course material because it displays diversity of Dominican ethnic and racial identities, particularly the struggle of their social along with national identification developed in response to pressure from the upper class privileged group. Candelario’s method of developing relationship with Dominican women and Dominican salon demonstrates a sense of community that everyone can count on each other. That there is still is strong dislike for “blackness” and Candelario’s focus on hair which is the most powerful symbol of individual and group identity. I enjoyed the book overall because it provided with excellent examples of people’s account and their stories. Especially the authors experience with assimilation into different part of the communities. The part that I did not enjoy as much would be just how dense the book was. The information could have been more short and concise so the reader would not get bored of reading so much material.

Ixcanul

Ixcanul translates to “volcano” in the native indigenous language called Kaqchikel in Guatemala. It is a film about a young Mayan girl Maria who lives and works with her parents on a coffee plantation set at the foot of the volcano. She is supposed to marry Ignacio, the overseer, a match that would secure her family and achieve a higher status. However, Maria is not interested in marrying him, instead she plans to escape with a plantation worker named Pepe. Through the turning of events Maria is faced with a choice to keep a life or give it up. In the end, Maria is still bound by her traditional life but feels the fire within.

The film consisted with a full indigenous cast, where the story focused fully on the lives and misfortunes of indigenous people. It explores the gender and indigenous issues to highlight the strength of Mayan women. That is shown with the day to day chores done by Maria and her mother. Those chores take a great amount of strength, for example carrying heavy things and walking for more than a mile everyday.  Also, the struggle of women not having the freedom to make decisions about their futures like the unconsented marriage of Maria. There is an overlying theme in the film of the strong preying upon the weak. The reason is because of the treatment of the indigenous people, especially the women. Therefore, Maria’s plan to escape symbolized the desire to break from the traditions by taking a step towards modernization and freedom.

Ixcanul relates to course material because, it shows the overall lifestyle and treatment of indigenous people living in a remote area. It displays how the concept of modernization was nonexistent in this small indigenous village. Everything was done manually with the help of family. There was this one example from the movie that showed a lady collecting information for the census. Due to the language difference and bias from the character Ignacio the information was not translated properly and fully. This made me think about the Perla survey and their methods of acquiring information, leading me to believe the authenticity of this technique. Additionally, the treatment of indigenous people in the modern cities was shown in the film. They were treated poorly at the hospital in the city and were deceived by them. This relates to the studies that showed people from small indigenous villages were treated poorly because the people from the cities thought they were dumb and uneducated. Overall, it was a great film with beautiful cinematography and would recommend to anyone interested in lives of indigenous society.

Blacks and Whites in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Blacks and Whites in Sao Paulo, Brazil, was written by Gorge Reid Andrews in 1991. This book provides a history of Brazilian racial inequality from the abolition of slavery in 1888 up to the late 1980s, showing how economic, social and political changes in Brazil during the last 100 years have shaped race relations. Andrews uses secondary source to gather information from various sources such as government policies, newspaper, employment data and much more.

The focus of this blog will be chapter six and seven. In these two particular chapters, Andrews traces the discrimination against Afro-Brazilians and the inequality leading to the black movement. He focuses on the racial competition between the Afro-Brazilians and white Brazilians. For instance, the advancement of Afro-Brazilians was always seen as a threat because the whites “insist that harmony is best preserved by black people remaining in “their place” and not creating “disagreeable situations” of competition and challenge.” This finally lead to the black movement because black mobilization finally reminded Brazilians that their country is not the racial democracy that it claims to be and if there were no problems then it would not lead to that movement.

This contributes to our unit’s theme because these chapters show us that even after slavery was abolished the racial inequality in Brazil was still highly present. It was either in forms of employment, clubs or education for Afro-Brazilian. Their appearance was also taken as a factor for the discrimination they faced. It has to be taken into factor that even though Andrews tells us about the racial inequality upon Afro-Brazilians, he does not however, touch upon the subject of the racial inequality against the immigrants by Afro-Brazilians. Nonetheless, Andrews does an excellent job at showing us the racial inequality present in Sao Paulo, Brazil and the effects of Afro-Brazilians taking a stance for themselves.

Film Analysis

Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus) is a romantic tragedy film made in Brazil by French director Marcel Camus. It is based on the retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth of Ancient Greece. The setting of the movie is the annual Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. Orpheus, the hero of this movie, falls in love with Eurydice and together they embark on a tough journey to achieve their love. Eurydice runs away from her house to avoid a man who she claims is trying to kill her. She arrives in Rio to stay with her cousin Serafina and meets Orpheus. Throughout the festivities of the Carnival, they fall in love and face the difficulties of being together. In the end, it is up to Orpheus to make the choice of not looking back to keep Eurydice by his side or to lose her forever.

Camus opens the film by engaging spectators in a scene of tribal drumming and dance. Music plays a big role throughout this movie. It sets the tone for the scenes presented and the emotions of the characters. The movie does a great job of depicting the diversity in Brazil because of the melting pot of different cultures brought by the slaves. This movie also shows the influence of indigenous people in Brazil. This is shown at the end when the Native Americans participating in the ceremony try to contact the spirits by performing rituals that are guiding these spirits. An ethnocentric critique of the movie would be the depiction of the Afro-Brazilian people living in favelas. It shows that they have do not have a care for anything and that they spend most of their time dancing and singing. It does not show the racial discrimination they have to face in everyday life and the hardships of the conditions that they are living in.

Black Orpheus relates to the course material through the depiction of African culture in Brazil. It shows the religion brought to Brazil by African slaves who blended their religious beliefs with Catholicism, which is embedded in Brazilian beliefs. It depicts the warmth and liveliness of the Afro-Brazilian culture that Brazilians have adapted by their taste in music, dance, food, and much more. Overall, the movie was a great take of the old myth with a new twist. I would defiantly recommend this movie to anyone interested to take a peak of the Brazilian culture in 1950’s, and also for the great music in the movie

Freyre – Masters and Slaves

The Masters and the Slaves, was written by Gilberto de Mello Freyre, which was first published in 1933. It is a secondary source because it incorporates and explains in detail the different types of resources. He wrote this reading to explain that the strength of Brazil lies in its racial diversity.

Freyre elaborates on the living conditions of Portuguese settlers, the indigenous peoples of Brazil, and African slaves. In this particular chapter, he focused mostly on African cultural anthropology and its social history rather than the physical anthropology. Freyre believes that the anthropology-culture and historical social aspects of African life indicate that Brazil benefited from a better type of colonists from the “dark continent”, than did the countries of the Americas.

He traces numerous separate lines from African civilization to Brazil, noting in considerable detail the importance of the vastly varying African populations, religions, languages, and cultures that were brought. He emphasizes that the negative qualities considered characteristic of African slaves in Brazil were in fact produced by slavery, not by African heritage. There was a deeper analysis of food, clothing, religious rituals and dance, which was linked from the African slaves to the Brazil’s culture that is seen today.

Sexuality was a prevalent theme in this reading, he talks about the odor of certain kinds of bodies, the “lushness” of women’s diets, sexual diseases, the heat and the importance of Big House in Brazilian culture. There is a focus on the prayers, child marriage, taunting rhymes and lullabies. He also mentions the Mohammedan Negroes that were brought to Brazil from the African area which had been most deeply penetrated by Islamism. They were culturally superior not only to the natives, but to the great majority of the white colonists.

Freyre does an excellent job in explaining the impact the African culture had in Brazil. He uses variety of resources to give an insight of the living conditions of “Negro” slaves. Although some of the resources might not be credible because they were travelers’ accounts or family stories, it gives the reader the unpleasant truth about slavery and its mark in Brazil.

 

Do you agree with certain points in this reading? If so, what are they?

Do you believe this reading is similar to Jose Vasconcelos and his idea of a “cosmic race”?

Film Analysis – 1

Cinco días Sin Nora is a Mexican film that is set in a Jewish community in urban Mexico. It begins with Jose Kurtz learning that his ex-wife, Nora, has passed away by committing suicide. The rabbi advises that because of the Passover holiday, the burial must take place either right away or not for five days. Before passing away, Nora schemes a plan that leads Jose to prepare for her funeral. Through this process, Jose rekindles his love for his ex-wife from the past memories with a twist of an unexpected affair and the faith that was imposed upon him by his religious family is tested.

This movie uses the slightest gestures to shed light at the big issues in the background. It draws a line, where religious faith becomes comfort and where toxic ritual. The film does an excellent job at keeping the viewers engaged with a comical plot line in a religious matter. For example, the scene where Jose offered rabbi some pizza with meat on it. Here they also show the bad side of religion by not letting Nora being buried in the Jewish cemetery because suicide a sin according to their religion. Nora, the dead ex-wife, plays a crucial role even after her death. She sets the whole tone for the movie by somehow manipulating each character. She gives the meaning to the word Passover by leaving hints of her presence throughout the movie.  Passover is a festival celebrated by the Jews, where there is a prescribed time to commemorate and reflect upon deceased loved ones. I believe that was the overall theme of the movie, before passing way, Nora, devised such a plan that brought all of her loved ones together to celebrate her cherished memories at the end with the Passover dinner that she instructed Fabiana to make. The only criticism that I would make is that there was not much information leading up to Nora’s death as to why she was could have been depressed. Other than that it was a good movie with universal theme of love, family, religion and culture coming together to celebrate the festival of Passover.

Connecting to the theme of our class, this movie showcases the indigeneity in Mexico. Prior to this movie I had no idea that Judaism even existed in Mexico. There is a certain example in the movie that shows the cultural values outplays the religious ones, for example when Fabiana finds out that the Shomer is from a place near her hometown, her reaction towards the Shomer changes immediately. Prior to that she treated him rigidly because of difference in their religion. Therefore implying that geography does play a crucial role in uniting people in Latin America.  Overall the movie was a great watch and would recommend it to anyone interested for a peak at the Jewish community in Mexico.