跨文化商務(wù)關(guān)系研究閱讀7巴西

1、chapter 7 the brazilian samba(p113)the next great civilization will emerge, like a serpent, from the amazon look at the geography. you see, brazil is shaped like a big heart brazil provides the heart for the world. but what happens when you turn a heart upside down ? it becomes a big bundci rear end

2、. we can 7 seem to get away from the rear perspective.krich (1993), p. 102the ambivalence expressed in the quote above, from the director of a samba school, reflects the general feeling found in the brazilian population. this large population, numbering 159 million in 199& is extremely diverse a

3、nd spread across several distinct regions and 26 states. in land area, brazil is almost equal to the entire united states: 8,511,965 square miles versus 9,372,610 spare miles. brazilians have tremendous spirit in the face of adversity, particularly economic, which has plagued the country for decades

4、. the well of this spirit is continually replenished by the brazilians5 passion for life. metaphorically, the samba encapsulates this passion and serves to replenish the well in both good times and badthe samba has truly become a national symbol. for example, at a beauty pageant for italian-brazilia

5、n young women, held in brazil, all contestants were asked what they first thought of when hearing the word "brazil." (p114) immediately, all of the young women began to samba. the samba's technical definition is "a binary, percussive rhythm in which the 1st beat is never sounded,

6、causing a continual, hesitant urgency" (krich, 1993, p. 73). this idea parallels the brazilians' polychromic nature and seemingly constant movement. a brazilian is naturally uncertain about his or her future when the first indication of the direction in which he or she is going cannot even

7、be heard this notion of not having a clear sense of direction dates back to the founding of this country. the settlers from portugal did not have a definitive plan of action for such issues as the assimilation or destruction of people from different races but the portuguese allowed for the societal

8、absorption of the indian population and the black slaves, thus facilitating the formation of brazilian culturethe very existence of the same samba is, in fact, due to the musical talent of the plantation workers. it was on the plantations that the first whispers of what is now known as the samba wer

9、e heard decades later, th samba predecessors appeared in civil society in the form of elegant tangos as blacks rose in social status in brazips bigger cities. the initial characterization of this dance as the samba occurred at free slaves dance parties in bahia in the 1870s. bahia was and is a cente

10、r of the vibrant and rich black culture in brazil. as the story goes, a woman from bahia named tia amelia took the samba further south to the slums of rio de janeiro. it was her son, donga, who composed the first recorded samba in 1916 .as early as 1923, samba schools were bom .it is these schools t

11、hat flourish today and symbolize the spirit of the samba to most of the outside world, especially during carnival. although part of the spirit of the samba is captured in the glorious dancers and floats in the samba school parades during carnival, the samba is much more complex. its physical charact

12、eristics and musical qualities weave an intricate web over brazilians and affect many facets of lifethe samba takes on many forms, such as "samba pagoda, samba raiado, samba de partido alto, samba do morro, samba de terreiro, samba cancao, samba enredo, samba choro, samba do breque, sambalero,

13、sambalanco, and samba55 (krich, 1993, p.73) many of these various samba are appropriate for specific situations and social levels. for instance, the samba enredo is composed and used in the samba schools the samba de terreiro is less sophisticated and likely to be danced in more rural areas. other s

14、ambas are simply musical innovations. for instance, the samba do breque incorporates a rhythmic spoken part, much like rap, in the middle of the traditional samba music.the lyrics of the various types of sambas are numerous as well, although all have a common theme, for the words center around the c

15、ommon man's trials and tribulations across history and in daily life. popular subjects include corruption, poverty, historical events, and local heroes. the number of samba songs that have been composed is enormous, especially if you consider (p115) that samba schools produce an average of 2,000

16、 new songs per year for carnival.there are five characteristics of the samba that, when explored in detail, delineate the culture of this country with respect to its people, their behavior, and their manner of conducting business. we have chosen to discuss primarily the physical attributes of this d

17、ance, as opposes to the musical and lyrical aspects, for the sake of brevity, although there is an obvious overlapping. these characteristics are small-step circularity, physical touch, undulation, spontaneous escape, and the paradox of dancerssmall-step circularitywhen dancing the samba, one moves

18、in small, somewhat controlled steps in a circular pattern while holding the upper torso still. this notion of small steps and circularity has been present in brazil since its discovery in april 1500. brazil was literally, but accidentally, run into by pedro alvares cabral, a portuguese trying to fin

19、d an oceanic passage to asia. because columbus ran into land along the same parallel, cabral was presumably hoping to do the same but earlier, in 1494, spain and portugal had divided the new world in the treaty of tordesilhas, and undiscovered brazil was given to portugal, even, though no one was aw

20、are of its vast size. in other words, this land became part of the portuguese empire largely through default and not through competition or war.in general, “brazil's development as a nation has been essentially evolutionary with few sharp breaks or drastic discontinuities (schneider, 1996, p. 35

21、). brazil grew amid small steps that were often circular, for example, from military to civilian rule and back. in the early 1800s, the portuguese emperor, dom joao vi, moved to brazil because he feared napoleon's power in europe. it was under his rule that growth truly began. after the situatio

22、n in europe stabilized, he returned to portugal and left his son, dom pedro i, to rule brazil it was this ruler who realized brazifs need to officially separate itself from portugal; on september 7, 1822, he declared brazil's independence several years later, he, too, returned to portugal but le

23、ft his son, dom pedro ii, in charge of this nation. during his rule, while he was away on business, his daughter signed a document freeing the slaves soon thereafter, two army generals took the initiative to oust dom pedro ii from brazil hence, in 1889, the monarchy was dead, and the republic of bra

24、zil was formed. this transition from monarchy to republic demonstrates how brazilians move into small steps. it took them 67 years after their country was declared independent to fully remove the portuguese monarchy from power. (p116)the existence of several different forms of government over time,

25、as well as the vacillation between these forms, also supports the notion of small steps and their circularity. it is significant that the republic was proclaimed by two generals, because military dictatorship has been prevalent in brazil for most of the nation's history. many presidents have bee

26、n military officers, thus further confusing the issue between military and democratic rule. in 1985, civilian rule and elections supplanted military rule, although the generals are still key playersfurthermore, there are none different political parties in brazil: the national reconstruction party,

27、the social democratic party, the party of the brazilian democratic movement, the democratic worker's party, the worker party, the brazilian labor party, the liberal front party, the popular socialist party/brazilian social democratic party, and the liberal party. it seems there is much circulari

28、ty, overlay, and repetitiveness in the ideologies and activities of these various parties. but this phenomenon also shows how individuals are given significant freedom in expressing their beliefs and forming organized groups representing these beliefs. again, this notion dates back to brazifs foundi

29、ng, where different groups were not forced to assimilate fully to the portuguese culture this liberal attitude extended to the practice of interracial unions, resulting in a myriad of mixed marriages and mixed children. all types of brazilians integrated themselves into a unified society through the

30、 small steps of increased racial integration. in fact, krich (1993) believes that "a new generation of blacks is finding the samba one of the handier means of advancementm(p 82) in brazilian society. although practiced more devoutly in particukir regions, the samba has been pervasive throughout

31、 the country, and knowing how to samba is part of being brazilian. hence, this dance is a vehicle through which all of the diverse peoples and regions of their vast country can seek some degree of unitystill, the issue of race is extremely complicated in brazil. there is a good amount of income ineq

32、uality, and much of it is concentrated among those with darker skin pigmentation, even though brazilians of all types tent to interact more easily in daily life than their american counterparts. eugene robinson 91995,1999), an african-american journalist, attributes the difference between brazil and

33、 the united states to the “one-drop" theory prevalent in the united states, that is, one drop of american blood leads to a classification as black. thus, there is a wide gap between blacks and whites in the unites states. demographers have substantiated this gap in the united states: african am

34、ericans represent the only ethnic or racial group that has not had a significant increase in out-group marriage in recent years, which typically leads to cultural integration.however, in brazil, the opposite theory was prevalent, that is, one drop of white blood lightens, making the person white. he

35、nce, it is popular to use the term "brazilian rainbow99 but not "american rainbow：' even though (p117) gradation of skin color is a point of discussion among african americans. because of this indeterminacy of skin color, some observers argue that social class is much more important th

36、an race in brazil, and even more important in brazil than in class-conscious england (bond & smith, 1998). ironically, scientists now argue that race is a useless and superficial classification, given the high rates of miscegenation throughout the world. to complicate matters, it should be noted

37、 that there arc large numbers of other ethnic groups in brazil. in fact, few nations have a population more diverse than brazil, which includes people of american indian, european, african, and east asian origin of both pure and mixed blood brazil has the largest concentration not only of blacks and

38、 their descendants outside africa, but also of japanese and their descendants outside of japan. but all or almost all of them identify primarily with brazil. for example, 100,000 plus japanese brazilians work in low-level jobs in japan because of the lack of jobs in brazil, but virtually none speaks

39、 the japanese language, and they are shunned by the japanese similarly, german brazilians celebrate oktoberfest in the traditional german manner until midnight, when brazilian music such as the samba transforms the event. commenting on such phenomena, the economist c'eine kleine samba/9 1995) ar

40、gues that the brazilian rainbow, even with its defects, should be studied in depth: "brazilians are remarkable more for what brings them together than for what keeps them apart'，(p.49).furthermore, the monetary and educational systems also demonstrate evolution and small-stcp circularity. s

41、ince 1940, brazil has used five different currencies: the mil res, the cruseiro, the cruzado, the new cruzeiro, and, currently, the real. hesitant to bring about sweeping change, the brazilians attempted to keep the cruzeiro by devaluing it many times over. in the early 1990s, the yearly rate of inf

42、lation reached a mind-boggling 2,500%, but it has since been reduced to low double digits. when it was finally apparent that the situation was hopeless, a move back to the cruzeiro was made, and the currency was declared to be the new cruzeiro; again, the notion of circularity is evident.the educati

43、onal system in brazil is quite interesting because it is both lax and controlled at the same time as with most educational systems, there are levels of education such as grade school, high school, and college. however, in order to enter a university, one must take an exam called the vestibular. one&

44、#39;s entrance to the university is based solely on his or her performance on this exam; high school grades and extracurricular activities are not important. thus, there tends to be a lax attitude toward school work in high school. before the exam, however, there is a big push, and strong efforts ar

45、e made to pass this exam. of significant interest is the fact that one takes this exam in a particular subject area, such as history, physical education, and so on. hence, at the age of 18, one must already commit to a college once (p118) students are accepted into a university for this field, they

46、study only subjects related to this field.a typical university campus has separate buildings for each subject matter; those studying history spend all of their time in the history building. once accepted, there is not much danger of failing, and a relaxed atmosphere is reached once again. in additio

47、n, there are no core courses that each student must take in order to graduate however, if one decides that he or she does not want to continue studying a subject, he or she may not simply transfer into another department; the student must take the vestibular over again in a new subject matter. hence

48、, the student loses valuable time spent studying subjects. in this manner, the educational system is rather rigid, as symbolized in the tight control of the torso and movement found in the samba however, it is also clear that many steps must be taken in order to reach a degree in ones prefeired fiel

49、d.education is an area in which the conflicts and contradictions in brazilian culture become apparent. whereas the average years of schooling have increased from 2 to 6 since 1970, comparable figures for fast-growing asia are 4 and 9. many of the schools are decrepit and underfunded, this, putting b

50、razil at a disadvantage in a globalized economy in which an educated workforce is critical. sometimes, the conflicts are startling. for example, in the early 1990s, the bulhoncs family exerted incredible power and influence over all aspects of life in the state of alagors, where the people suffered

51、from the highest infant mortality rate in the region, the lowest child vaccination rate, the lowest rate of prenatal care, and one of the lowest rate schooling1.8 years per adult but in contrast, the local elite looked forward to the inauguration of cellular telephone service in january 1994. wearin

52、g designer clothes, mrs. bulhones, the governor's wife, roamed among the shantytown dwellers and peasants, proclaiming, "poor people have just the same right to see me pretty as people in society： about that time, she chartered an executive jet three times to fly to sao paulo and back, with

53、 the state treasury picking up the $24,000 tab. meanwhile, the state's public schools were closed for 7 months because teachers were protesting salaries of $80 a month. the person taking the hard line with the teachers was the secretary of education, who was also governor brother. thus, this fam

54、ily represents a pointed example of the political oligarchy that blurs lines between public and private consumption and responsibilities.small steps and circularity are characteristics that are found in a brazilian personal life as well. although it is quite easy to make acquaintances, or colegas, i

55、n brazil, it takes some time to cultivate deep and lasting friendships. a typical pattern for a foreign student is to establish a network of colegas, and to socialize outside of school and create friendships wit ha few individuals who become more than colegas. next, this student may be invited to th

56、e homes of his or her friends and eventually be treated as a member of the family (p119). similarly, business is typically conducted in restaurants, and it is a sign of honor and trust to be invited to a businessperson's homea brazilian's transition from his or her parents' home to his o

57、r her own home also consists of many small steps. family is the most important institution and, hence, greatly influences the individual. for instance, the dating process is greatly regulated by the family. it is not uncommon for a man to court a woman on the porch for a time before being allowed in

58、 the house. once welcomed into the home, many couples spend time together in the living room in the presence of the family. after a relatively long courtship, couples may marry. although times are changing, most young adults leave their parents' home only when they many hence, it is unlikely tha

59、t many individuals live on their own; instead, they live first with their parents and siblings and then immediately with their spouses and children.this notion of extended courtship is found in business relationships as well. when conducting business in brazil, one must first establish a solid frien

60、dship. only after a committed relationship is in place can a deal be struck. a typical piece of advice is to “be prepared to commit long-term resources of time and money to establishing strong relationships in brazil. without such commitments, there is no point in attempting to do business there at all" (morrison, conaway, & dourcss, 1995, p.44)