Culture of Brazil

The culture of Brazil has been shaped by the amalgamation of diverse indigenous cultures, and the cultural fusion that took place among Indigenous communities, Portuguese colonists, and Africans, primarily during the Brazilian colonial period. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Brazil received a significant number of immigrants, primarily of Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, and German origin, which along with smaller numbers of Japanese, Austrians, Dutch, Armenians, Arabs, Jews, Poles, Ukrainians, French, Russians, Swiss, Hungarians, Greeks, Chinese, and Koreans gave a relevant contribution to the formation of regional cultures in Brazil, and thus contributed to its current existence as a plural and racially diverse society.

As consequence of three centuries of colonization by the Portuguese empire, many aspects of Brazilian culture are derived from the culture of Portugal. The numerous Portuguese inheritances include the language, cuisine items such as rice and beans and feijoada, the predominant religion and the colonial architectural styles. These aspects, however, were influenced by African and Indigenous traditions, as well as those from other Western European countries. Some aspects of Brazilian culture are contributions of Italian, Spaniard, German, Japanese and other European immigrants. Amerindian people and Africans also played an important role in the formation of Brazilian language, cuisine, music, dance and religion.

This diverse cultural background has helped show off many celebrations and festivals that have become known around the world, such as the Brazilian Carnival and the Bumba Meu Boi. The colourful culture creates an environment that makes Brazil a popular destination for tourists, who visit over 1 million annually.

Brazil was a colony of Portugal for over three centuries. About a million Portuguese settlers arrived during this period and brought their culture to the colony. The Indigenous inhabitants of Brazil had much contact with the colonists. Many became extinct, and others mixed with the Portuguese. For that reason, Brazil also holds Amerindian influences in its culture, mainly in its food and language. Brazilian Portuguese has hundreds of words of Indigenous American origin, mainly from the Old Tupi language.

Black Africans, who were brought as slaves to Brazil, also participated actively in the formation of Brazilian culture. Although the Portuguese colonists forced their slaves to convert to Catholicism and speak Portuguese, their cultural influences were absorbed by the inhabitants of Brazil of all races and origins. Some regions of Brazil, especially Bahia, have particularly notable African inheritances in music, cuisine, dance and language.

Immigrants from Italy, Germany, Spain, Japan, Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Austria-Hungary and the Middle East played an important role in the areas they settled (mostly Southern and Southeastern Brazil). They organized communities that became important cities such as Joinville, Caxias do Sul, Blumenau, Curitiba and brought important contributions to the culture of Brazil.

Modernism in Brazil started with the Modern Art Week held in São Paulo in 1922 and was characterized by experimentation and interest in Brazilian society and culture, as well as rebellion against influence from Europe and the United States and the orthodoxy of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. Tarsila do Amaral and Oswald de Andrade were among the catalysts of the antropofagia movement in Brazil, with works such as Manifesto Pau-Brasil, Abaporu, and Manifesto Antropófago. In the 1930s, sociologists such as Gilberto Freyre and Sérgio Buarque de Holanda published ideas about Brazilian culture, society, and identity, presenting concepts such as "racial democracy" and the "cordial man".

During the military dictatorship (1964–1985) and especially following the Institutional Act Number Five in 1968, the government censored material—including art, literature, music, theatre, film, etc.—that it deemed subversive or against "morality and good manners." Tropicália or Tropicalismo was a movement against this repression and authoritarianism, from both the government and the Catholic Church. Part of the counterculture of the 1960s, Tropicalismo was led by figures such as Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso and manifested itself primarily in music.