Racial Inequality and Religious Belief in Brazil: The Mysterious Case of Slave Anastacia

1. Racial Inequality and Religious Belief in Brazil: The Mysterious Case of Slave Anastacia Monday, April 2, 2001

2. Brazil

3. The devotion to the Slave Anastacia • One of the most revered popular saints in Brazil: at least 12 million devotees; most of devotees are women; of all colors • Her main appeal: delivery of miraculous cures, solace for women in crisis • Also important: her mythical story • Non-devotees say she never existed; devotees say she did • Main outlines of her story

4. Version 1 of Anastacia’s story • Master really falls in love with Anastacia • Anastacia accepts/falls in love with master • Master’s takes revenge on Anastacia • Caring relations between masters and slaves are thinkable; the source of evil/torture is not slavery as much as the jealousy of master’s wife

5. Version 2 of Anastacia’s story • Master lusts after Anastacia • Anastacia refuses and resists his overtures • He tries to rape her; she fights back • Master punishes her by imposing the face mask • She is defending her honor • The most important feature of the story for these informants: her refusal to give in

6. Slavery in Brazil • From 1512-1870: 3 million Africans survive Middle Passage to Brazil • Worked in sugar, gold and diamond mines; later in tobacco • Life expectancy: 7 years in the field (malnutrition, disease, overwork, torture)

7. Resistance to slavery • Escape, setting up maroon communities • Palmares and Zumbi (1600-1690) • The Muslim uprising (1835) • The massive rebellions, 1850-1888

8. “Official” Brazilian history • The story told in school-books: Princess Isabel freed the slaves in 1888 out of goodness of her heart • Slaves mainly accepted slavery because Brazilian culture is so familial and cordial (Gilberto Freyre)

9. The key contrast with the US • The presence of a third color/race category: “moreno”, “pardo”, “mulato”. • In 1888, 40% of Brazilians belonged to this category • These people had better life chances than those who were identified as “preto” or “negro”

10. Causes for the emergence of a large official “mulatto” class • Many more unattached men in Brazil than in North America (Brazilian planters wanted heirs) • North American women had more authority in households than Portuguese women (Portuguese women less able to block competition with their own children) • Scarcity of Europeans to take on socially respectable jobs in Brazil (foremen, militia captains, small merchants)

11. The impact today on Brazilian race relations • Working-class (“w-c”) “mulato” twice as likely as w-c “preto” to earn university degree • Preto children 3 times more likely than mulato children to drop out of school by 4th grade • W-c pretos earn 25-30% less than w-c mulattos

12. Tensions between pretas and “morenas” • Beauty • The morenas have advantage in love “market” • Family • Lighter siblings often receive different treatment • Work • negras hired more as domestic servants; morenas hired more as cashiers, sales assistants, etc.

13. The “official story”: the myth of racial democracy • Also Gilberto Freyre • “There is no racism in Brazil” • Any inequality of treatment is due, not to color, but to class difference

14. Returning to the versions of Anastacia’s story • Version 1: Told by women who identified themselves as “morenas” • thought of themselves as descendant of slave-master union • wanted to think of their slave-master ancestor in positive terms • accept the “official” history of Freyre

15. Version 2 • Told by women calling themselves “pretas” or “negras” • Anastacia prefers death to rape • version refutes the myth of cordial slavery and serves as basis to resist the ongoing myth of racial democracy