Author Archives: Wooseong

Three Most Important Things Learned This Semester

After taking the Modern Brazil class, I first learned that various minority groups played an integral role in constructing Brazil. For almost every single topic we discussed in class, three key words—race, class, and gender—frequently appeared as prominent issues in contextualizing Brazilian history. This historical aspect turns out to be the case for other countries histories as well. However, for Brazil especially, the issues of race, class, and gender are essential components in addressing and defining Brazilian identities. From my understanding, the idea of transculturation and traces of colonization intensified and amplified the issue of race, class, and gender in Brazil. Moreover, looking over how Brazil’s transformation process was based on race, class, and gender, it was interesting to see how Brazilians have formed their identities through the shaping of these issues. I believe, however, that Brazil still struggles from negotiating and settling these issues, but this class reminded its students that Brazil is on the progress of becoming a powerful nation-state in the near future.

Secondly, I learned that Brazil is a well-established nation-state with an abundance of resources, deep historical roots, and a rich, diverse culture. Before taking this class, I knew that Brazil carried insurmountable economic power and resources. It wasn’t surprising to discover Brazil’s status as a world economic power from our first reading assignment. However, I did not know about the rich history and culture behind this success and that minorities played an important role in the development of Brazil. Moreover, it was interesting to explore the intricate dynamics of Brazilian politics as well as the history. In relation to social construction, the country suffers from a large gap between the rich and poor, socioeconomic hierarchies, and racial discrimination. From the dictatorship to the recent presidential election, the political culture reflects how Brazil continues to show political oppositions between the Right and Left-Wing associations. Overall, I learned that Brazil contains the historical, political, and social aspects of a modern nation state.

Lastly, for popular representation, there were various components to consider in fully understanding the story behind this concept. It was interesting to observe how Brazilian cultures such as Capoeira, Samba, and Soccer have evolved alongside with these categories (race, class, and gender). Before taking the class, I often saw Brazilian figures in video games (Overwatch and Tekken) portrayed as male with dark skin tones, dreadlocks, and distinct features such as musical instruments (Lucio from Overwatch) and fighting techniques (Eddie Gordo from Tekken). However, after taking the class and partaking in the readings, discussions, and presentations, these Brazilian figures are historically significant because they, who although are presumed to be identified as Afro-Brazilians, are representing Brazil despite the persistent racial hierarchy across Brazilian societies. Moreover, these figures as portrayed by the United States and Japan, suggested how other countries perceive Brazil. In contrast, Brazil still primarily favors white Brazilians to represent the country.

IS Symposium

[Sarah Vonck]

Sarah’s central argument for her Senior Independent Studies was examining how the lack of implementation of the Rights of Nature, as defined in the newly drafted Ecuadorian constitution, has caused backlash from the indigenous community in the country, and how this backlash has led to further mistreatment of the indigenous community at the hands of the Ecuadorian government (thesis provided by the author). She portrays Latin America (in her case, Ecuador) through capturing Ecuador’s polarized nature that draws a clear distinction between social minority groups such as indigenous group to the established state with abundant resources and power, and further addresses the political inequality between these two groups.

[Dylan Pederson]

Dylan’s focus was the study of racial inequality in Colombia. Several features included human rights catastrophe, para-militarism, and Afro-Colombian collective conditions. He portrays Latin America (in his case, Colombia) as forced displacement and tumultuous place with armed conflicts, presence of Leftist guerrillas and Right-Wing paramilitaries, and drug traffickers.

The Wasteland Questions

Q1: How does social entrepreneurship function in helping underprivileged people to mobilize their socioeconomic statuses?

A1: In the film, workers of Jardim Gramacho participated in an art project with a supervisor, utilizing recycles and litters to create portraits of its members. After they finished the project, the pieces created through the art collaboration were auctioned and sold at a high price, which the profits were distributed to the workers of Jardim Gramacho. Here, social entrepreneurship played a crucial role in helping those in need to get back on their feet or start a new chapter in their lives with the income they earned from selling the art pieces. Although the money wasn’t significantly large, it was sufficient enough to support the workers in pursuing their dreams. Brazil has one of the largest gaps between the rich and poor in the world. However, it is almost impossible to allocate monetary resources directly to underprivileged people in Brazil, but Wasteland reveals how those in need can be financially supported for minimum investment to pursue their visions.

Q2: How does Wasteland reveal the social construction of Brazil?

A2: During watching this film, there were several features I noticed that reflect the social construction of Brazil. Those working at Jardim Gramacho were predominantly non-whites, whereas the film director (or the project supervisor) was white. Similarly, the film captures a scene at the auction where the ones purchasing art works were, again, white. From my understanding, the auction represented a rich high urban social life that was practiced and enjoyed by white Brazilians. Moreover, a female worker at Jardim Gramacho (I forgot her name) says in the film that she doesn’t want to go back to the garbage land, but she must go back to support her children and mother. This was inevitable for that Brazilian woman because working there was the only option in the society she can utilize to financially sustain her life. This further reflects how, in Brazil, social construction is deeply systematized that those in need possess limited opportunities and resources within the society.

Blog Post: The Hour of the Star

Discussion Question: What does this text reveal about the life of poverty in Brazil?

Response: This literary piece reveals the inevitable fate of those in the slums through viewing the society in pessimistic perspectives. Clarice Lispector, a Brazilian female writer, shares a depressing, helpless, and soulless life of Macabea to emphasize the endless vicious cycle that strictly exists within the slums. Throughout the text, Lispector draws a clear distinction between the rich and poor through expressing her words in a straightforward manner, which she describes this writing technique as being “naked” (8). Her portrayal of Macabea as incompetent, hopeless, and emotionless signifies the true reality of the impoverished lives in Brazil. For example, Lispector states that Macabea’s “life was more tasteless to her than old bread with not butter” (50). She further points out that the life of a destitute female indicates emptiness which emotion, purpose of existence, and meaning in life were mere luxury (52,76). Moreover, the text implies that those from the slums were inherently designed to undergo a dismal life that would never possess the qualities of the rich. For example, Lispector mentions Macabea “was nervous about drinking rich people’s stuff [and that] she got sick” (57). Moreover, she notes that Macabea was forced by the society to be organically simple because she was “the rejects of a very high society” (58). Her demise caused by a Mercedes car, an evident indicator of richness, strongly emphasizes that those with low socioeconomic status were the subordinated entities of the larger society. Lispector concludes that “in the end [Macabea] was not more than a music box that was slightly out of tune” (77) and that [Macabea] “was finally free of herself” (76). Through actively engaging with her pessimistic perspectives, Lispector argues that the life of poverty was fatalistic and deliberately constructed to discriminate the poor from the mainstream society.

 

Works Cited

Lispector, Clarice. The hour of the star. Vol. 733. New Directions Publishing, 1986.

Wikipedia Work: “Football in Brazil”

Article “Football in Brazil” consists of five chapters alongside with two subsections that present the historical, cultural, and social background of soccer in Brazil. This source discusses important historical transitions and the sport’s impact within the nation; however, lacks to capture core ideas of the Brazilian football and fails to properly incorporate evidences. Although the article needs huge improvements on reconstructing its format, I plan to focus on adding cultural significance that addresses how race intertwines with soccer in Brazil. The text emphasizes the sport’s history through underscoring its improvements throughout the years, and further defines football as strictly Brazilian. For example, the article introduces football as an European culture, which underwent a series of adjustment period and became a global sensation. Moreover, it argues that football is perceived as a popular trend which its distinctive styles and international success function as major contributors. However, I noticed that the article disregards race as key component in the Brazilian football. Thus, this project will pursue adding another perspective—race—to the article.

It is important to improve contents of “Football in Brazil” for reflecting Brazilian history and culture because football serves as a representative figure in popular trends alongside with music and carnivals. Marshall Eakin, a history professor at Vanderbilt University, argues that football provided “shared national experiences” in Brazil [1], which indicates that soccer plays an important part in understanding Brazil. Although various factors constitute Brazilian history, popular cultural trends such as soccer should be prioritized. Furthermore, football conveys historical significance that it exemplifies racial diversity, transculturation, and social mobility in Brazil, which all appear as crucial components in contextualizing Brazilian history. However, the article omitted these aspects, rather highlighted the Brazilian football’s status in the international realm without taking account of its main features. Overall, football with its prominence in representing popular cultural trends in Brazil should be recognized for better understanding Brazilian history and culture through adding racial diversity as a key component.

The article relies on news articles for its citation. Scholarly or primary sources appear inconsistent in the reference list as well as the editing process on the Wikipedia Talk Page. For instance, the last update covered women’s soccer culture in 2009, modified few external links, and corrected grammar mistakes—showing no content upgrades over the past five years. For this project, I plan to incorporate two interviews and scholarly sources, which are presented below under “Sources” section. Kittleson discusses race as a major component in Brazilian football, whereas Lever expands Kittleson’s views through highlighting the racial dynamics within the sport. Moreover, two interviews—Ronaldo and Neymar—will be referred for addressing the importance of race in understanding the football culture in Brazil. The interviews demonstrate racial discrimination and mobilization across Brazilian football players. Through utilizing these above sources, I plan to add a new category—race—within the article “Football in Brazil.”

[1] Jeffrey Needell, Emergent Brazil: Key Perspectives on a New Global Power (University Press of Florida, 2015), 22.

Works Cited
Needell, Jeffrey D. Emergent Brazil: Key Perspectives on a New Global Power. University Press of Florida, 2015.

Sources
“Brazil: The ideology of “whitening” and the struggle for a black identity.” Black Women of Brazil. May 09, 2013. Accessed February 13, 2018. https:// blackwomenofbrazil.co/2012/02/09/brazil-the-ideology-of-whitening-and- the- struggle-for-a-black-identity/.

“Neymar Jr, Brazilian Racism and The World Cup of Football (soccer).” The Corn Dealers House. July 30, 2014. Accessed February 13, 2018. https:// tcdh.wordpress.com/2014/06/24/neymar-jr-brazilian-racism-and- the-world-cup- of-football-soccer/.

Kittleson, Roger Alan. The Country of Football: Soccer and the Making of Modern Brazil. Vol. 2. Univ of California Press, 2014.

Lever, Janet. “Soccer as a Brazilian Way of Life.” Games, Sport and Power, ed. Gregory P. Stone 156 (1972): 138-159.

Research Project Blog Post: Football

European football (soccer) plays a prominent role in Brazil. The sport undoubtedly contributes a major portion in representing the nation’s cultural identity. According to FIFA, an international organization that oversees and governs global soccer trends, the Brazilian national soccer team ranked the second highest place in the world as of 2018. The team won five championships in the world cup, coming in as the team with the most titles. Interestingly, the team comprises of talented players with various ethnic backgrounds that show a wide variety of races. For instance, Neymar da Silva Santos, a worldly renown football player at Paris Saint Germain, identifies himself as a Brazilian yet comes from a dual heritage of African and Amerindian. In contrast, David Luiz, a famous football player at FC Chelsea, possesses both African and Portuguese genes. Regardless of their backgrounds, the national team performs excellent teamwork as a whole. Based on these observations, I believe the Brazilian national team signifies a larger historical theme that conveys racial diversity in Brazil.

In Brazil, cultural richness combines with racial diversity. With its profound history of colonization and immigration, the country produces a diverse environment under a unified nation. In the sixteenth century, the European dominance forcefully brought western cultures while the oppression begot African or indigenous cultures. Through constant adaptations, Brazil established a strong cultural foundation that conveys diverse yet unique ideas. For instance, Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art, originated from African slave communities as a protection tool, which later transformed to a globalized art form with thousands of foreign practitioners. Soccer, although not strictly Brazilian, underwent a similar process as Capoeira in which the sport was introduced by European immigrants but was reinvented as a new form of culture in Brazil. Historians define this cultural adaptation as transculturation, a phenomenon of merging and converging cultures. Thus, this research project primarily considers transculturation as the essential component in defining soccer as the product of cultural adaptation that adds a new dimension to understanding Brazilian history, and further focuses on the correlation between race and culture in Brazil.

Brazil’s national soccer team poses for pictures prior to a friendly soccer match against Panama at the Serra Dourada stadium in Goiania, Brazil, Tuesday, June 3, 2014. Back row, from left: Dante, Fred, David Luiz, goalkeeper Julio Cesar, Luiz Gustavo; first row from left: Oscar, Daniel Alves, Neymar, Ramires, Marcelo, and Hulk. Brazil is preparing for the World Cup soccer tournament that starts on 12 June. Brazil won the match 4-0. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) ORG XMIT: XAP124

Through this research project, I hope to discover how racial diversity and cultural adaption have interacted to produce national identity. In a broader perspective, this project will show how football in Brazil serves as historical evidence that indicates cultural expansion. Moreover, it is important to recognize football in understanding Brazilian history because the sport reflects the process of how race intertwines with cultural ideas in Brazil. Europeans’ forced recruitment of African slaves and their diplomatic relationship with the indigenous tribes in the sixteenth century fostered racial diversity within the nation. Furthermore, interracial marriages expanded the scope of racial categories in Brazil. However, this social expansion has organized under unified cultural and political ideologies. Despite the prevalent issue of racial inequality in Brazil, the national soccer team exemplifies this social expansion. Furthermore, football brings Brazilians together through creating an invisible social framework—Imagined Community—that establishes an inclusive environment among the people. Thus, football is crucial to recognize because it functions as an example of how the nation handles racial diversity through promoting popular cultures.

I plan to examine three primary sources and four secondary sources for this project. Consider the list of sources presented below this paragraph for feedback. Primary sources referred in this research consist of two interviews given by Neymar and Ronaldo, and an image of the Brazilian national soccer team to convey issues of race such as diversity, discrimination, identity, and mobilization across football culture in Brazil. Moreover, scholarly sources will provide an overall background of football trends in Brazil. Roger Kittleson argues that the Brazilian football style has absorbed popular Brazilian cultures such as Samba and carnivals, as the sport was strongly advocated by African Brazilians. Kittleson notes social mobility within football culture attracts racial minorities, as the sport is strictly based on individual’s talent not his or her race. Kittleson further views transculturation as an integral factor in adapting European football in Brazil. Janet Lever expands Kittleson’s idea through taking account of soccer as a nation-wide obsession that sets social and cultural norms in Brazil. As this research focuses on linking culture with race, two articles addressing two Brazilian football players (Ronaldo and Kaka), each identified as Afro and European Brazilian, will be examined throughout this project. Both scholars discuss various cultural impacts soccer players produce in Brazil, which are influenced by race.

Primary Sources

“Brazil National Team.” Digital image. Soccer.com. Accessed February 13, 2018. https://www.google.com/search?q=Brazilian national soccer team&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS782US782&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ah UKEwjLv5qNqaPZAhWl3YMKHVAnBa0Q_AUICygC&biw=1440&bih=803#imgrc =ptRPI34884ZlTM:.

“Brazil: The ideology of “whitening” and the struggle for a black identity.” Black Women of Brazil. May 09, 2013. Accessed February 13, 2018. https:// blackwomenofbrazil.co/2012/02/09/brazil-the-ideology-of-whitening-and- the- struggle-for-a-black-identity/.

“Neymar Jr, Brazilian Racism and The World Cup of Football (soccer).” The Corn Dealers House. July 30, 2014. Accessed February 13, 2018. https:// tcdh.wordpress.com/2014/06/24/neymar-jr-brazilian-racism-and-the-world-cup- of-football-soccer/.

Secondary Sources

Kittleson, Roger Alan. The Country of Football: Soccer and the Making of Modern Brazil. Vol. 2. Univ of California Press, 2014.

Kulick, Don. “Soccer, Sex and Scandal in Brazil.” Anthropology Now 1, no. 3 (2009): 32-42. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41203556.

Lever, Janet. “Soccer as a Brazilian Way of Life.” Games, Sport and Power, ed. Gregory P. Stone 156 (1972): 138-159.

Jones, Jeremy V. Toward the Goal, Revised Edition: The Kaká Story. Zonderkidz, 2014.

Culture Blog Post: Capoeira

 

Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art, played a central role in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 2017. Through combining musical elements and dancing skills, Capoeira practitioners compose various choreographic techniques that are comprised of constant flows of offensive and defensive movements between two combatants who explore and exploit their opponent’s strengths and weaknesses. After the exchange of movements, they patiently seek the perfect moment to strike a decisive blow. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, an online platform that publishes academic research and studies conducted by the Smithsonian institution, Capoeira contains a rich background that emphasizes both its cultural and historical values. Today, fans perceive Capoeira as an art form, rather than a traditional combat practice. However, Capoeira has a deep historical root that traces back to the colonial period.

 

Enslaved Africans in Brazil developed Capoeira to resist European oppression. According to an article published by the Smithsonian magazine, historians surmise that Capoeira originated from quilombos, small communities organized by escaped African slaves and their descendants. The article argues Capoeira emerged as a defensive tool against the Portuguese and was under the influence of African cultural system within quilombos. In the mid-1800s, the Paraguayan War fueled a massive influx of slave population to urban areas in which the African immigrants utilized Capoeira as a mean for protection and survival. However, Capoeira conveyed both aggressive and inoffensive images in the twentieth century. Professions such as mercenaries and bodyguards that require physical protection services trained in Capoeira, whereas urban residents performed Capoeira with musical instruments at bars. During the 1930s, Capoeira underwent various transitions. For example, Master Bimba institutionalized Capoeira as an educational discipline through legitimizing Capoeira in the form of self-defense and athletics, which later contributed to presenting Capoeira as an official cultural practice in Brazil that emphasized “paramount fighting techniques but [an] innovative [and] spectacular visual show.”

Capoeira continued to evolve as an art form during the late twentieth century. According to the Smithsonian magazine, Capoeira experienced a major success in expanding its presence across the nation. In 1964, Master Acordeon promoted Capoeira through touring, hosting seminars, and teaching in local schools of Brazil. His influence later spread throughout the world. He founded the World Capoeira Association, an organization that promoted Capoeira through “workshops, educational trips, publications, and codifying a body of rules for the understanding and respect for the history, rituals, traditions, and philosophy.” Acordeon further propagated Capoeira across Brazil, the Caribbean, and Europe. Moreover, Capoeira was initially introduced to Americans in 1975, where educational institutions such as Columbia, Yale, Harvard, and New York universities implemented Capoeira as their program. In 1990, two Capoeira masters launched an institution that taught Capoeira in United States; their commitment was recognized with the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship. Although many Capoeira masters in Brazil disapproved of the sport’s globalization, Capoeira became an official national sport in 1972.

Capoeira possesses both artistic and cultural values. Capoeira practitioners redefined the sport as an aesthetic work in the twentieth century. For example, Master Joao Grande believes “Capoeira is nature.” His inspirations in creating techniques have derived from observing nature. However, Tekken, a Japanese video game franchise, interprets Capoeira as a combative tool through applying Capoeira techniques in combat. Eddy Gordo, an affluent Brazilian male fighter, plays an important role in Tekken. After his father’s death, Gordo was wrongfully imprisoned, which motivated him to train Capoeira for taking revenge on his father’s killer. Although his ethnicity was not specified in his biography, Tekken designed him as a Brazilian who wears a green and yellow colored outfit, speaks Portuguese, and has a dark skin tone. Recent updates within the game added new features to Gordo’s outfit such as a tiger coat. Furthermore, Gordo manages an orphanage in Brazil in which the children view him as a hero with indestructible combat skills. Overall, Gordo’s characteristics resemble popular representation of Brazil as well as Capoeira. The character requires a consistent control of chain commands to invoke attacks and his skills show a constant flow of various physical movements, which reflects the fighting structure and style in Capoeira. Without the musical components, Tekken portrayed Capoeira as a combat weapon.

Capoeira serves as significant historical evidence of how African slaves in Brazil reacted against European oppression during the colonial period. Stuart Schwartz, a history professor at Yale University, argues various forms of resistance existed throughout the colonial era, in which palmares functioned as a social protection for African slaves. According to the Smithsonian magazine, the African slaves considered Capoeira as a defensive tool to protect themselves from the European brutality, and they practiced Capoeira to break “the bonds of slavery in both physically and mentally.” Furthermore, although the European perspectives categorized the slave resistance as unlawful, the core identity of Capoeira conveys “cleanliness and articulation” that reflect African slaves’ “burning desire for freedom.” Today, the key ideology behind Capoeira transformed yet the sport continues to remain as a representative cultural figure in Afro-Brazilian heritage. For example, in the PBS series “Black in Latin America,” a Brazilian Capoeira master shares that he supervises Capoeira sessions for the youths in Salvador to discipline their minds and prevent young Brazilians being involved in potential criminal activities.

The Smithsonian article argues Capoeira “is a result of the phenomenon of people migrating to new lands…Capoeira was conceived in Africa and born in Brazil.” In class, we discussed the cultural diversity in Brazil. Numerous immigrants with various ethnic backgrounds constitute the Brazilian cultural identity of which Capoeira serves as a popular component. Similarly, Brazilian jiu-jitsu is another example. In 1909, Geo Omori, a Japanese immigrant in Brazil, founded the first jiu-jitsu school. Compared to Capoeira, both sports focus on building individual’s character and physical fitness. In the early 1990s, Brazilian jiu-jitsu became a nationally prominent sport with many practitioners in Brazil and international tournaments. In a broader historical theme, Capoeira alongside Brazilian jiu-jitsu indicates the cultural diversity in Brazil and suggests that the readers fully take account of contextualizing this aspect in understanding the Brazilian cultural identity.

 

Works Cited

Brazil. Directed by Ricardo Pollack. PBS, 2011. Accessed February 6, 2018.

“Brazilian jiu-jitsu.” Wikipedia. February 05, 2018. Accessed February 07, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_jiu-jitsu.

“Eddy Gordo.” Tekken Wiki. Accessed February 07, 2018. http://tekken.wikia.com/wiki/Eddy_Gordo.

Goncalves-Borrega, Juan . “How Brazilian Capoeira Evolved From a Martial Art to an International Dance Craze.” Smithsonian.com. September 21, 2017. Accessed February 07, 2018. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/capoeira-occult-martial-art-international-dance-180964924/.

Schwartz, Stuart B. Slaves, peasants, and rebels: reconsidering Brazilian slavery. Vol. 82. University of Illinois Press, 1996.

 

Class Notes (01/25/18)

Our main activity for today’s class was to work in small groups for the Wikipedia Article assignment. Each group was assigned with a primary source that relates to the history of indigenous people in Brazil. We started off with two presentations organized by our classmates, continued to discuss about technology instructions on Wikipedia, defined credible sources for Wikipedia, and worked with small groups. The class readings were to prepare for the upcoming Wikipedia assignment in groups. Professor Holt assigned several other readings to think about how our Wikipedia pages should be organized. Overall, today’s class focused on learning cultural aspects of Brazil, picking up Wikipedia instructions, working in groups, and planning our Wikipedia page.

Presentations:
Jack’s Presentation: Culture Post
Jack’s presentation discussed the fake news and issues accompanied with such false information in Brazil. He noted how prevalent fake news are in the country. In 2016, false information in the media outperformed and the government began to punish those who promote fake news in social platforms. However, it is impossible to eliminate the presence of fake news in Brazil because of the difficulty tracking the source providers. Moreover, fakes news is delivered and spread out through private messages such as What’s App and Facebook, which even make harder to eliminate fake news. For Jack, police officers and the power focused on law enforcements were interesting. Compared to United States, race and political issues were more dealt in fake news.

Maria’s Presentation: Queermuseu Post
Maria’s presentation discussed an art exhibited hosted at a cultural center in Brazil. The exhibit addressed various issues of gender and sexual diversity. However, the exhibit misrepresented religion in various ways which later developed into a conflict. Consequently, the Santander Bank (sponsored the exhibit) publicly apologized for their misconduct and exhibit was shut down. Maria mentioned a funding opportunity held in New York for re-opening the exhibit, however, the art show remained closed. Maria noted how religion ties with presidents in Brazil, the impact of celebrities, and the issue of gender and sexuality in Brazil.

Wikipedia Instructions:
1) Citation is important – Overcite!
2) Cite manually if there is an error

Credible Sources:
(*Check for abstracts in searching scholarly sources)
1) EBSCO Host (Academic Search Complete): http://0-web.a.ebscohost.com.dewey2.library.denison.edu/ehost/search/advanced?vid=0&sid=89ffe28a-08a8-4168-b989-977c9108bf5a%40sessionmgr4008
2) Wooster Library Online Database: https://www.wooster.edu/academics/libraries/
3) JSTOR: http://www.jstor.org/
4) Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/

Small Group:
1) Outline of Wikipedia Page
2) Searching for possible sources
3) Allowed erase Professor’s comments on the Wikipedia page!
She had to put information to create the page.

Potential Examination Questions:
1) What could be credible source?
2) Which information should you cite in Wikipedia?
3) What are the impacts popular social figures in Brazil such as celebrities and politicians can produce across race, gender, and religion?
4) Does Fake News in Brazil plays an important role or serve as a key component in the powerful Brazilian economy?

Wikipedia Article Critique: Indigenous Peoples in Brazil

The Wikipedia article “Indigenous Peoples in Brazil,” although it addressed prominent aspects such as European colonization and cultural diversity, the source failed to link the indigenous heritage with racial categorization, a representative figure in defining Brazilian identity. The article showed relevance to the topic through discussing how the indigenous population constitute the Brazilian society throughout centuries. Although it properly represented both domestic and foreign forces each as perpetrators and victims, the article implicitly conveys Eurocentric views. For example, the text minimizes the dreadful impact Portuguese conquerors caused across Amerindian communities. Patricia Seed, an American historian and professor at University of Carolina Irvine, argues how religious superiority and cultural alienation played integral roles in indigenous enslavement. Moreover, the article disregards the intricate hierarchy between indigenous mercenaries and Europeans which begot an ambivalent nature across Brazilian societies. Overall, the article showed many underrepresented ideas.

Sources cited in this article contributed in adding insightful views; however, few evidences lack credibility. Several parts within the article needed proper citations as well as full descriptions on the original source. Citation issues were common in the article which online readers updated and modified external links on the talk page. Majority of sources relied on foreign texts, scholarly journals, and online sources. I believe the article cited a wide variety of sources and historical evidences that incorporate both foreign language and English based texts. However, as mentioned earlier, the article essentially should establish a central theme through adding a larger scope of scholarly sources. The lack of information rates this article as incomplete. Despite such failures in containing thorough descriptions of the unique culture, social impact, and historical significance Brazilian Amerindians possessed, the source covers a large area of their origins and experience. Full coverage on indigenous people in Brazil should be contemplated and addressed through the WikiProject.

The Wikipedia Talk page and the discussions led by online users point out two historical aspects of indigenous people in Brazil: racial prejudice and social oppression. I strongly insist establishing a central theme for conveying a clear image of Brazilian Amerindians and their historical heritage, and further expand those ideas to illustrate how those themes constitute Brazilian national identity. For example, historical and cultural aspects such as European colonization, transculturation, and cannibalism should be dealt in the article to address current issues the indigenous people in Brazil experience. Moreover, the article, compared to the classroom discussions, neglect the ongoing problems the Brazilian tribes face in the contemporary world. Environmental decadence in Amazon’s ecosystem and commercialization of tribal cultures are the two representative figures Brazilian Amerindians are experiencing.