Bahia Brazilians

John Beierle

Baia

The S011 Bahia Brazilians file is concerned with the culture and inhabitants of the city of Salvador (Bahia), the capital of the state of Bahia in eastern Brazil, and with the surrounding Recôncavo, a semicircle of land bordering the Baia de Todos os Santos (Bay of All Saints). The Recôncavo is generally equated with the sugarcane area, but it also includes the densely settled and intensively cultivated zone around the bay, and the contiguous zones of equivalent agricultural concentration. The Recôncavo region encompasses an area of approximately 4,827 square miles (about the size of the state of Connecticut), and its geographical coordinates are roughly 12 degrees-13 degrees south latitude by 38 degrees-40 degrees west longitude.

Bahia's population consists largely of people of mixed African and European origin, frequently referred to in the literature as "mulattoes", and a minority of descendants of unmixed African or European origin. Population density varies considerably. The greatest concentrations of Bahia's population reside in the cities and towns of its eastern coastal area, particularly in the Recôncavo. The arid interior, on the other hand, is sparsely populated and has relatively few towns. Population growth in the Recôncavo has shown a steady increase, from about 277,503 in 1819 to 450,000 in 1872, 924,032 in 1940, and 1,072,452 in 1950--a growth rate of sixteen percent in the last 10-year period noted above. An estimate of the total Bahian population in 1995 gives a figure of 12, 646,000 ("Bahia" Britannica Online).

In the late twentieth century the official language of the Recôncavo is Portuguese, as it is for the rest of Brazil. This was not always the case, however, for when the first Portuguese settlements were established, Tupi, an American Indian language, was the lingua franca of all segments of the population except the social elite, who spoke only Portuguese. In the sixteenth century, the importation of slaves into Bahia from various African territories (chiefly the Guinea Coast and Angola) led to the introduction of a number of closely-related African languages, through which mutual communications were established between the different groups of slaves. These composite languages became known as Nago. Nago continued for some time to be the general language of the African descendants. Even as late as 1900, Nago was commonly spoken in Bahia by nearly all of the old Africans and by many of the Creoles and Mulattos as well, and was still heard in the 1930s (Pierson 1967, no. 4: 72-73). Interest in Portuguese revived with the great literary awakening in the eighteenth century and the expulsion from South America of the Jesuits, who were the principal popularizers and promoters of Tupi. During the nineteenth century, as the Portuguese language began to filter down to all social levels, coming into contact with both Tupi, Nago and various other African languages it underwent considerable change in both linguistic structure and vocabulary (Weil et al, 1971: 102).

The first permanent colony on the Baia de Todos os Santos was established by the Portuguese in 1549 (Haskins 1956, no. l: 65). By the end of the sixteenth century, the ethnic groups, crops, animals, and agricultural institutions that were to become characteristic of the Recôncavo were already in evidence. Slaves were imported from Africa shortly after the arrival of the first Portuguese settlers, as well as sugarcane and cattle. Manioc and tobacco produced by the Indians of the region were rapidly integrated into the colonial pattern of agriculture. The combination of sugar mill and plantation (ENGENHO), which formed the basic economic institutions of the Recôncavo until the end of the nineteenth century, already existed in rudimentary form before 1600. By the middle of the seventeenth century, these institutions had been greatly expanded, and Bahia became the leading province in Brazil for the export of both sugar and tobacco. The eighteenth century opened with a series of economic disasters for the Recôncavo.Competition from sugar producing areas in the West Indies, in combination with gold and diamond discoveries in Brazil, and such natural disasters as floods resulted in large-scale migrations of the population away from the sugarcane-producing areas. At the end of the eighteenth century, the economy recovered, largely as the result of the collapse of the competitive sugar economies in the West Indies and expanding new urban markets and Europe. At this time the Recôncavo passed through a so-called "golden age," which persisted through the first quarter of the nineteenth century.

In the 1820s, the British government began to press Brazil for a treaty to end the slave trade, a treaty which was finally consummated in 1826. It was not until 25 years later, however, after many bitter diplomatic exchanges with Great Britain, that the Brazilians began to fulfill their treaty obligations. After 1852, almost no slaves were landed. Finally, in 1888, Brazil passed a law giving complete and immediate freedom to the slaves without compensation to the slave owners. The loss of slave labor was a severe blow to the sugar industry, but by this time tobacco had surpassed sugar as Bahia's leading export crop. In the twentieth century, as in the nineteenth, the Recôncavo persisted in its monoculture and was reluctant to accept technological innovations in agriculture and industry.

Agriculture remains the primary economic activity of the Recôncavo, supplemented to some degree by fishing in the bay area (e.g. in the town of Villa Recôncavo). About 70 percent of all crop land is used for the production of the three predominant crops--manioc, tobacco, and sugarcane. Basic subsistence crops are manioc, maize, beans, peanuts, sweet potatoes, and bananas. Although the Recôncavo is primarily a subsistence and commercial crop region, livestock play an important role in the basically agricultural economy--as draught animals, for meat and dairy products, and as a source of manure for the crops. Haskins estimates that in 1948 there were between 800,000 to 850,000 livestock animals in the Recôncavo, primarily cattle, sheep, goats, horses, asses, and mules (Haskins, 1956, no. 1: 266).

In the twentieth century heavy industry is represented in the state by a petroleum refinery and by cement works and ironworks. Salvador, Feira de Santana, Aratu, and Ilhéus are the state's industrial centers. Energy is mostly hydroelectric, especially from the Paulo Afonso project.

The export of two major agricultural products to Europe formed a significant part of the Bahian economy from approximately 1550 to the late 1800s. These products were sugar and tobacco. At the end of the sixteenth century the Recôncavo region exported some 1,800 tons of sugar to Europe, which probably formed the greater part of the total world trade in sugar at that time. By the mid twentieth century commercial sugar factories (USINAS) in the region exported 8,497 tons of sugar alone to other parts of Brazil, with the total international trade in this product amounting to about twelve million tons (Haskins, 1956, no. 1: 395-396). A strong competitor to sugar in the export market was tobacco. This product, which at one time was used to purchase slaves, was a major export by the mid twentieth century surpassing that of sugar. Additional major crops in the export trade were cacao, coffee, and rubber (at the beginning of the twentieth century).

On the sugar plantations men, women, and children worked together as labor gangs in the planting and harvesting of the cane. Men cut the cane, women gathered and piled the cane stalks and leaves, while older children assisted as best they could in these operations and also managed the ox carts. In manioc production women and girls scraped the roots, while men and boys performed the more arduous tasks of planting and harvesting the crop. In the households, women engaged in food preparation, washed, ironed, and sewed the clothes, and performed other routine housework chores.

At the beginning of the colonial period the land-owning pattern in the rural areas consisted of the distribution to certain high ranking colonists of large government land grants which were then split up into separate ENGENHOS (plantations). These ENGENHOS existed in the region for approximately three hundred years but the way of life on these sugar plantation came to an end for all practical purposes at the end of the nineteenth century as the result of economic and financial crises and the abolition of slavery (in 1888). After 1889 the lands occupied by the ENGENHOS were largely broken down into smaller land parcels known as AZENDAS as the result of division by inheritance, sale, or donation. The coming of the twentieth century has brought with it the introduction of the sugar factories (USINAS) resulting in the concentration of lands again under single ownership, although this time under corporate rather than individual or family ownership (Hutchinson, 1957, no. 2: 43).

One of the basic social institutions which has strong historical roots in the Recôncavo, and in other colonial sugarcane regions as well, is the large, aristocratic, patriarchal, extended family characteristic of the Bahian upper class. This class tends to marry within its own group thus stabilizing the comparatively small number of extended families constituting this class, through bonds of kinship. Lower class families, although sharing some of the upper class characteristics, seem to have quite a different functional character and social significance in the society. Over the years the traditional upper class Bahian family has gradually changed from the patriarchal form to one more "conjugal" or "nuclear" in structure, similar to the family in France or the United States, yet still retaining several of its former features, such as the preference for endogamous marriage. (For a detailed study of the Bahian family to 1945, see Borges 1992, no. 7).

In the nineteenth century it was common for wealthy plantation owners to have extensive real estate holdings, not only in the Recôncavo itself, but in other parts of the state as well. Frequently these properties included houses and even commercial buildings in the cities. Other possessions of these owners included extensive accumulations of silver service, china and crystal, and linens. On the death of their owner these possessions would be distributed among the heirs. Testamentary disposition of property was often arbitrarily made by the family patriarch prior to his death, often leading to bitter disputes between the heirs following his demise. Slaves, at least before 1888, were often part of the property division, although certain favored slaves might be given their freedom. By the mid-twentieth century, following the general decline of the sugar plantation system, there was usually only one plantation to share among heirs in the case of death of the owner. Single plantations were almost never divided unless such a division was practicable, but in cases where there was no strong emotional attachment to the plantation, it could be sold outright and the proceeds divided among the heirs. Other solutions include renting the plantation to a factory (USINA), having one heir take over the management of the plantation, paying a rental fee to the other heirs, or having one heir purchase the plantation from its co-inheritors, thus keeping the plantation and its traditions within the family. This problem of inherited land disposal exists only for the private plantation. Death of the holder of shares in the factory corporation does not affect the land tenure. The shares are simply distributed among the heirs (Hutchinson 1957, no. 2: 134-135).

Recôncavo society is characterized by a strongly-developed class structure, with little vertical mobility. The influence of this class structure permeates all aspects of the culture (e.g. marriage, labor, housing, etc.). Hutchinson, in his studies of Villa Recôncavo (1957, 1963, nos. 2 & no. 3), a small community in the Central Recôncavo sugarcane area, distinguished four separate social strata: (1) the aristocratic upper class, composed of plantation-owning families, linked to one another by marriage, all of whom are well educated and of European appearance; (2) a local upper class, composed of local bureaucrats, plantation administrators, sugar mill technicians, merchants, and professional people whose educational range varied from university-educated doctors to illiterates and whose racial backgrounds included individuals of both mixed and unmixed European, Indian, and African stock, (3) the working classes, composed of plantation workers, craftsmen, and fishermen, also of mixed and unmixed ancestry, and (4) CIDADE individuals occupying menial positions in the society: porters, water carriers, washerwomen, domestic servants, and odd jobbers. Although this class analysis is based only on one community, it corresponds closely to the general class structure throughout the sugarcane zone, and, with some modifications, to that of the city of Salvador itself. Salvador's upper-class stratum consists not only of landed aristocrats and their descendants but also of urban capitalists, speculators, and members of several professions -- doctors, lawyers, and engineers. In general, the criteria for the determination of class status in the Recôncavo are: (1) source of income (2) type of work (3) educational level (4) family background (in varying degrees), and (5) physical or racial appearance.

There are six major political divisions of the Recôncavo (Central, Northern, Northwestern, Southwestern, Eastern, and Southern), each of which is divided into municipios, totaling 21 in all. The significant political unit is the municipio, the approximate Brazilian equivalent of a county in the United States. Each municipio is composed of two elements--the SEDE (seat), which is the administrative center and, regardless of size, is called a CIDADE; and the rest of the municipio, which in the Recôncavo is primarily rural. The municipio is usually further divided into DISTRITOS (districts), each with a center called a VILLA. Neither the CIDADE nor the VILLA is a corporate entity separate from the municipio or district (i.e., there is no urban organization per se). In the Recôncavo area, the CIDADES are either small cities, towns, or villages, while the VILLAS may be either villages or hamlets. The size of the municipios vary considerably, being very large where the population is scattered and small where the settlement is dense. The Recôncavo, as with all of Bahia, is dominated by the city of Salvador.

The pressure of public opinion served as a primary form of social control among Bahia Brazilians. Within the family group, especially with the upper classes, compliance to the wishes of the parents, as in the case of marriage choice, was enforced by threats of disinheritance, or, in the case of the daughter, placement in a convent.

Traditionally, religion occupied a large part of the lives of the upper class aristocracy. Nearly every plantation in the rural areas had its own chapel, which formed part of the owner's house, and its own chaplain, who saw to the spiritual needs of the landowning family and their slaves. Much of the landowner's wealth was spent on religion--building churches, sponsoring religious processions, and maintaining religious brotherhoods for laymen. In the twentieth century, however, Catholicism is no longer the official state religion, and interest in religion has generally waned, especially among the upper classes.

Concomitant with the influential period of the Catholic church, there arose during the nineteenth century, various African cults called CANDOMBLE, representing a fusion of Catholic beliefs and rituals with African mythology and religious practices. In the twentieth century, as with Catholicism, little interest is shown in the religious aspects of these societies. More recently, spiritualism has been introduced to the area and seems to be growing in popularity, especially because of the healing powers displayed by the mediums. In most cases, people are drawn to it through illness and the promise of a cure. Protestantism has made little headway in the Recôncavo; there have been a few converts, but apparently there is considerable resistance to another organized religion.

Prior to the twentieth century Catholic priests were the primary religious functionaries serving the spiritual needs of the Bahian population. During the nineteenth century, however, the African cults or CANDOMBLE introduced a whole new hierarchy of religious personnel. Each SEITA or cult center was presided over by a priest or priestess known as the PAE DE SANTO or MÃE DE SANTO whose primary function was to supervise the various levels of ritual associated with the cult. Other religious practitioners associated with the cults included the BABALAÔ, or OLHADOR, whose primary function was to foretell the future; the CURANDEIRO, who by means of magic, herbs and prayers, attempted to treat and prevent disease; the FEITICEIRO, or so-called "witch doctor", whose function was to work black magic; the OGANS or male members of the SEITA, who assisted the priest or priestess with the rituals; the ACHÔGUN who performed the sacrifices; and the JIBONAM (PEQUENA MÃE) who assisted the dancers and made food offerings to the spirits (Pierson 1967, no. 4: 281).

The Bahia Brazilians observe a wide range of religious and quasi-religious festivals (FESTAS) throughout the year. These religious ceremonies and festivals, observed primarily by the lower classes, combine both Christian and African elements, and involve novenas, religious processions, saint's days, carnivals, and CANDOMBLE rituals. The church ceremonies are used by Bahian families to mark important passages in their lives. These involve baptism during infancy, communion in early childhood, confirmation during young maturity, and church marriage in adulthood. These rituals serve not only to dramatize the meaning of the universal transition from one phase to another in the life cycle, but also to solemnize special occasions such as recovery from illness, graduation from an academy, etc. (Borges 1992, no. 7: 155). In general the religious calendar gives meaning to the year, for instead of measuring time in the sense of days and months, it is measured by the observance of certain festivals and saint's days. Communal processions are also an integral part of the church calendar, sometimes involving a whole parish, religious brotherhood, or town, but at other times centered on an individual household and its neighbors.

Carnival is the strongest bit of profane folk culture attached to religious ritual. Although the custom of carnival with its license and mirth is celebrated throughout Catholic Europe and Latin America, officially the Church censors it because of its frivolous and libertine nature.

Cult rituals, such as, such as those performed by the CANDOMBLE cults, are heavily African in origin. These involve offerings or gifts to deities, frenzied drumming and dancing, and spirit possession. These rites are often employed to cure a patient where other medical means have failed.

During the period of slavery from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, plantation masters provided medical care for the entire household of the slave, spending as much on the treatment of a single individual as they would on members of their own family, since slaves represented a large capital investment to the owner in terms of money and as a source of labor.

During the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries medical care facilities vastly improved in Bahia, with a greater access to doctors, clinics, and hospitals being made available in the region. Unfortunately it was generally the upper class Bahians who made the most use of these facilities, since the poorer members of the society found such medical consultations, and prescribed medicines far too costly, and used them only in cases of extreme urgency. Among the lower classes disease and health are a constant concern, a fact which is clearly reflected in their conversation and correspondence. They consider healing as a family matter and the family itself responsible for the medical care of its own members. Although all classes in Bahian society had equal access to curers, homeopathic physicians, spiritualist mediums, druggists, miracle cures (such as performed at Nosso Senhor do Bomfim), prayers, rituals of the African cult societies, and most important of all home remedies, it was generally the lower classes that made the most use of them. Domestic remedies such as the infusions of various herbs and plants and castor oil remained the most common treatment for simple disease, while prayer remained the most effective one for major ones (Borges 1992, no. 7).

For the Catholic population of Bahia death customs follow closely the practices of the Church involving a funeral, a secular wake and a funerary meal. The deathbed scene is accompanied by confession and the administration of the last rites by a priest. Following the burial, commemorative masses are performed at increasing intervals of time. These function to combine a cult of the family dead with symbolic representation of their removal from the company of the living (Borges 1992, no. 7: 155). There is some evidence that Bahia Brazilians believe in an afterlife since a child who is baptized and dies before the age of seven is supposed to go straight to heaven, while one who dies after that age and is not baptized, goes to a place called "limbo".

Documents referred to in this section are included in the eHRAF collection and are referenced by author, date of publication and eHRAF document number.

The Bahia Brazilians file consists of ten documents, nine in English and one, Azevedo 1953, no. 5, a translation from the French. Fieldwork for these studies was conducted over a period of sixty years from approximately the mid 1930s (Pierson 1967, no. 4) to the mid 1990s (McCallum 1996, no. 10), while the range of ethnographic coverage in the file runs from the sixteenth century to the late twentieth century. The most comprehensive works in the file are those of Haskins (1956, no. 1), Hutchinson (1957, 1963, nos. 2 & 3), Pierson (1967, no. 4), and Schwartz (1985, no. 11). The Haskins study is an agricultural geography of the Recôncavo based on his fieldwork in 1952-1954. It contains detailed descriptions of land use, agricultural products, and foreign trade. It is the only source in the file to cover the whole Recôncavo area. Hutchinson (1957, no. 2) is a sociocultural analysis of the community of Vila Recôncavo in the sugarcane area. It contains much historical information on the development of the sugarcane monoculture in the area and on the relatively recent changes from family based plantations (ENGENHOS) to corporate owned sugar processing factories (USINAS). Hutchinson's other work in the file (Hutchinson 1963, no. 3), based on the same community of Vila Recôncavo, is a study of race relations, showing how African cultural influences and the particular set of patterns involving the large patriarchal family and the master-slave relations which took form on the sugar plantations were significant factors in producing the class and race relationships as they exist in the late twentieth century in the area. In conjunction with this last work, Pierson's study presents a classic sociological analysis of race relations and culture contact in Brazil, with a focus on the city of Salvador (Bahia), and is further supplemented by the information in Azevedo (1953, no. 5). Pierson's work contains a good historical analysis of slavery, assimilation, intermarriage, and status in the society. Although most of the documents in the file contain historical information to some extent, the definitive work on this topic is found in Schwartz (1985, no. 11). This study presents a detailed history of Bahian plantation society from 1550 to 1835, with abundant data on the evolving society of the period, slavery, the physical aspects of sugar mills and sugar plantations, and a description of what life and work was like on these ENGENHOS.

The remaining works in the file contain an assortment of ethnographic information from ethnosociology in McCallum (1996, no. 10), to religious ritual as a collective expression of experience in Sjorslev, (1987, no. 9), upper class family structure and sociocultural change in Borges (1992, no. 7), and the activist roles of two carnival groups in the city of Salvador (Dunn 1992, no. 8). In overall coverage this file contains a great deal of information on race and social status, agriculture and history, with great historical depth, and contrast between rural and urban life.

For more detailed information on the content of the individual works in this file, see the abstracts in the citations preceding each document.

The culture summary, indexing notes and synopsis were written by John Beierle in May, 1998.

• abolitionist movement -- categories 668, 567

• AFOXE -- Afro-Bahian carnival group that specialized in the playing of percussion instruments -- categories 533, 541, 575

• African "carnival clubs" -- category 575

• BANDEIRA -- artisan association -- category 467

• BATUQUE -- dance of African origin -- category 535

• BLOCO AFRO -- young militant group of carnival musicians -- categories 533, 541, and 575

• BLOCO INDIO -- carnival group of Afro-Bahians -- category 575

• boards of inspection -- boards designed to provide a measure of quality control in the shipment of Brazilian goods abroad -- categories 647, 439

• bush captains (rural constables) -- category 693

• CAMARA -- municipal councils -- in the city of Salvador, category 633; general, category 623

• CANDOMBLE cults -- category 794

• CANDOMBLE ACHOGUN -- category 794

• CANDOMBLE JBONAM -- category 794

• CANDOMBLE leaders (priests or priestesses) -- category 793

• CANDOMBLE musicians -- categories 794, 533

• CANDOMBLE OGAN (assistant) -- category 794

• captaincy -- categories 631, 423

• counties -- category 634

• EMPREITERRE -- labor contractors -- category 464

• EUGENHO -- a large, semi-tropical agricultural estate; a sugar plantation -- category 249

• exploitation of oil wells (by Brazilians in Bahia territory) -- category 315

• IRMANDADES -- a religious brotherhood -- category 794

• MESAS DA INSPECAO -- see boards of inspection

• MOCAMBOS -- see QUILOMBOS

• ORIXAS -- Yoruba deities associated with forces of nature who manifest themselves during elaborate rituals in CANDOMBLE -- category 776

• PANELINHA -- cliques -- category 573

• QUILOMBOS -- a settlement of fugitive slaves banded together for mutual protection -- category 621

• SANTIDADE -- a syncretic, messianic cult -- categories 794, 668

• SEITA -- cult center -- categories 346, 794

• SOBRADO -- urban townhouse -- category 342

• spiritualism -- general concepts of-- category 771 (also 787, 755 depending on context)

• USINA -- the modern sugar factory , category 249; its organization, category 473; physical description of machinery -- category 407

Azevedo, Thales de. Les élites de couleur dan une ville brésilienne [The colored elite in a Brazilian city]. Paris: UNESCO, 1953

Borges, Dain Edward. The family in Bahia Brazil, 1870-1945. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1992

Dunn, Christopher. Afro-Bahian carnival: a stage for protest. IN: Afro-Hispanic review, Vol. 11, nos. 1-3. Washington, D.C., The Institute, (1992): 11-20

Haskins, Edward Cooper. An agricultural geography of the Recôncavo of Bahia. Dissertation (Geography) -- University of Minnesota. (University Microfilms Publications, no. 17,891). Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, 1956 [1967 copy]

Hutchinson, Harry William. Race relations in a rural community of the Bahian Recôncavo. IN Charles Wagley, ed. Race and Class in Rural Brazil. 2d ed.: 16-46. New York: International Documents Service, Columbia University Press, 1963

Hutchinson, Harry William. Village and plantation life in northeastern Brazil. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1957

McCallum, Cecilia. Resisting Brazil: perspectives on local nationalisms in Salvador da Bahia. IN: Ethos, Vol. 61, no. 3. Stockholm: The Museum of the Peoples, 1996: 207-229

Pierson, Donald. Negroes in Brazil: a study of race contact at Bahia. Foreword by Herman R. Lantz. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1967

Schwartz, Stuart B. Sugar plantations in the formation of Brazilian society: Bahia, 1550-1835. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985

Sjorslev, Inger. Untimely gods and French perfume: ritual, rules and deviance in the Brazilian Candomble. IN: Folk, Copenhagen, Vol. 29, 1987: 5-22

Weil, Thomas E. Area handbook for Brazil. By Thomas E. Weil et al. Washington, D. C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1971

Amado, Jorge. Cacau. 3d ed. Rio de Janeiro: Ed. Jose Olympio, 1936

Amado, Jorge. Jubiaba. Rio de Janeiro: Ed. Jose Olympio, 1935

Amado, Jorge. Mar morto. Rio de Janeiro: Ed. Jose Olympio, 1936

Amado, Jorge. Suor. 2d ed. Rio de Janeiro: Ed. Jose Olympio, 1936

Freyre, Gilberto. The master and the slaves. 2d ed. (English translation of Casa grande e senzala, first published in 1936). New York: A.A. Knopf, 1956

Freyre, Gilberto. The mansions and the shanties. (English translation of Sobrados e mucambos, first published in 1936). New York: A. A. Knopf, 1963