Luso-tropicalism

 

The concept of luso-tropicalism was formulated by Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre in a trilogy of books published from 1933, known as The Masters and the Slaves, The Mansions and the Shanties, and Order and Progress. Although the term 'luso-tropicalism' was coined later in the 1950s, it serves to encapsulate Freyre's interconnected ideas about Brazil and Portuguese colonialism.

 

In The Masters and the Slaves, Freyre outlines the fundamental aspects of the concept. He suggests that extensive mixing, or 'miscegenation,' occurred in Brazil among people of European, African, and native Amerindian descent, resulting in a subtle and complex blend. This mixing was influenced by the Portuguese colonists' decision to establish a sugar monoculture using a large-scale farming model. The colonists, a small and mostly male group, justified enslavement and intermingling with the native Amerindian population due to a perceived shortage of labor. Once the nomadic culture of the native population was disrupted by the Portuguese emphasis on settled ranches and fixed labor, African slaves took their place.

Gilberto Freyre, a Brazilian sociologist, developed the concept of luso-tropicalism in his trilogy of books published from 1933. This term was coined in the 1950s to encapsulate Freyre's ideas about Brazil and Portuguese colonialism. He argued that the three-way mixing of different racial groups, based on pseudoscientific notions of "biological stock," led to a profound blending of culture in Brazil. This blending was so extensive that little of the original group culture remained, especially compared to the more defined cultures in the United States.

 

Freyre believed that the history of the Iberian peninsula predisposed Portuguese settlers to both biological and cultural mixing, with a more benevolent governing ethos than in British or French colonies. The hybridization of Portuguese culture, influenced by the dynamic between Portuguese and Moorish culture on the Iberian peninsula, was already present when settlers arrived in Brazil. The warm climate of the Iberian peninsula also prepared Portuguese colonists for the hot weather in Brazil.

 

Despite Freyre's exposure to cultural anthropologist Franz Boas, luso-tropicalism, like the concept of hybridity, considers both biology and culture. Freyre differentiated African groups in Brazil, sometimes emphasizing cultural superiority based on Islamic influences, but at other times resorting to biological differences. His depiction of Brazilian "family life" was racially inflected, at times bordering on racism.

 

Responses to Freyre's concept varied. During Getúlio Vargas's authoritarian rule, luso-tropicalism inspired the idea of Brazilian "racial democracy" and national identity. However, scholar Florestan Fernandes highlighted racial divisions and discrimination faced by Afro-Brazilians in Sao Paulo. The concept was also used by governing elites in Brazil and Portugal to address calls for independence from Portugal's African colonies in the 1960s.