Since I have learned a lot about Brazil throughout the semester, limiting this to three things will be hard, but here goes!

1. How race is constructed in Brazil: I thought the conversations and readings that we did regarding the way that race is understood in Brazil was the most eyeopening topic in this class. As an American, learning about a different racial construct and how race is understood by Brazilians was informative and exposed me to how different racial constructs can effect a country.
2.  Better skills at making an iMovie: I have used iMovie only once before our iMovie assignment so I would still consider myself a rookie at it. Learning how to do a voiceover, pull clips and place them in my iMovie, use music, and other small skills will help me in the future when I use iMovie. 
3.  How plastic surgery is perceived in Brazil: I thought the reading for this week as well as the student book presentation followed with discussion raised a lot of points about how vanity for men and women are perceived by certain cultures. Given my more Brazilian approach to plastic surgery, I enjoyed reading and learning more about something I am not only interested in but also something that some people think differently about. 

Question: How does Macabea evolve from alienation- if at all?

Macabea is a complex character in that she is alienated by people that one would generally assume to be including her. Her family and boyfriend have tendencies to alienate her. Not as surprisingly, people outside of her socio-economic class alienate her. In an effort not to spoil anything in the blog post (not sure how far people have read), I will not be giving exact examples. However, Olímpico, the boyfriend, gives the reader a perfect example of alienating Macabea. Her feelings that follow Olímpico and Gloria, as well as Gloria’s feelings are all a result of alienation. This is difficult for the reader to analyze because the question if she can overcome this alienation is present. As the reader, I personally am cheering for Macabea to over come this form of adversity and beat out those who alienated her.

For my potential research project I am hoping to discuss the music that moves Brazil. Specifically, I would like to research the Samba and its importance in modern Brazil’s music. Samba is not only a musical genre, but also a dance style. Arriving with African roots to Bahia, Brazil through the sambia de roda- samba quickly spread to the rest of Brazil starting in the 17th century. While Samba came to Brazil in the 17th century, its significance stayed and spread  until present day.

While analyzing Samba, primary sources are important to my research. Having first hand accounts from artists, composers, and dancers enhances my reader’s understanding of Samba. In my research I will focus on the history of Samba, but I primarily will focus on Samba in the 21st century. Gilberto Gil, a composer and a minister of culture in Brazil, submitted to Unesco an application declaring Samba as a a “Cultural Heritage of Humanity”. His involvement  with Samba over the past 60  years contributes to the historical research along with other primary sources.

The scholarly secondary sources are also important to my research. By reading secondary sources and incorporating them into my research, I will be able to give the reader an unbiased account of the history of Samba. Additionally, the secondary sources will contribute to modern Samba in Brazil. One of my secondary sources is Hello, hello Brazil: Popular music in the making of modern Brazil, which also is the book I will be analyzing later in the semester for this class. Having this book pre-assigned for this class only supported the credibility and importance to modern Brazil’s musical history.

In this research I hope to discover two things. First, the history of music in Brazil and some of the important composers, musicians, or DJ’s that helped shape the music movement in Brazil. Secondly, I hope to discover the historical importance of Samba and the relevance that it has in modern Brazil’s music scene today and in the past. Music and dance are important to every culture, Brazil non the less. By understanding an important music and dance in Brazil, we can better understand the culture and social impact.

Scholarly Secondary Sources:

• McCann, Bryan, 1968. 2004. Hello, hello Brazil: Popular music in the making of modern brazil. Durham: Duke University Press.
• Vianna, Hermano, 1960, and John Charles Chasteen 1955. 1999. The mystery of samba: Popular music and national identity in brazil. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
• Shaw, Lisa, 1966. 1999. The social history of the brazilian samba. Aldershot, England;Brookfield, VT;: Ashgate.
• Hertzman, Marc A. 2013;2014;. Making samba: A new history of race and music in brazil. Durham: Duke University Press.

Primary Sources:

• Jones, Quincy (2002). Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones. Three Rivers Press.
• Pele Telefone, o primeiro samba. CD release.
• MYERS, R., and G. GIL. 1990. brazilian popular-music in bahia, the politics of the future an interview with gil,gilberto. Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 9 : 297-309.

For the most part of the Wikipedia article “Indigenous peoples in Brazil” every topic covered was related to the article. The ‘Native people after the European colonization’ topic headline had too many subheadings under and could’ve been broken into two different headings. That was the most distracting about the Wiki itself. Additionally, I was confused with the statistic portion on religion for the Indigenous peoples. Some of the wordage and lack of correct capitalization was bothersome as well. The article at first glance seems to be neutral. However, throughout the article there is an apparent presentation of indigenous peoples and the uncontacted people as either fully assimilated with the rest of Brazil’s society or unable to assimilate. In a more positive bias, the environmental subtopics in this article are clearly biased in favor of the uncontacted peoples in regards to their land and the Amazon.

While reading, I felt like the viewpoints of the underrepresented were from the lack of research on the tribes and their people. While I understand that is implied in the term uncontested, I am hard pressed that not one person has tried to make efforts in historical research to contact and learn about these tribes. Europe’s role in Brazil is undeniable, but it felt overrepresented in parts because it was not directly pertaining to the Indigenous peoples.  Most of the links that I checked both support the article and also were still working links. There were a few bad links, but none that I felt were out of place or non supportive.  Most of the references were reliable secondary sources. There were a heavier amount of environmental articles cited but still academic sources. These were more neutral sources, with only one anthopological article that I read as slightly biased. There were no biased sources noted within the citations.

There is some older information which raises the question of accuracy. Some of the statistics or references are from the late 90’s and show no signs of being followed up on. This is something that could be improved within the article in order to make it more accurate. There were many comments and modifications noted on the Talk page of the article. The conversations were comments about biases and faults that readers had identified in the article. For example, there was a comment about the Bering Strait Myth and its misuse in the article as it was presented as a proven theory. This comment contained an external link to support their claim and changes to the article. External links have also been modified many times throughout the creation of this Wikipage.  This Wikipage has been rated as a C-Class  page. It ironically has also been rated as a Top-importance page. Since we are still just getting into the course content of our class, I am interested to see how we discuss indigenous people in Brazil vs. the way this Wikipage has.