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Importing Freud and Lamarck to the Tropics: Arthur Ramos and theTransformation of Brazilian Racial Thought, 1926-1939*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Brad Lange
Brad Lange*
Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
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Extract

If, in the work of Nina Rodrigues, we substitute the terms culture forrace, and acculturation for mestiçamento, forexample, his concepts acquire complete and perfect modernity.

—Arthur Ramos, 1939

Popular legend suggests that a mysterious curse fated Nina Rodrigues’ deathin 1906. Though a pioneer of Afro-Brazilian studies, he posited thatAfro-descendants possessed a genetic atavism predisposing them to crime andargued that widespread racial miscegenation had contributed to thefin-de-siècle “negro problem” in Brazil. Almost four decades following hisdeath, the curse was reborn, striking Arthur Ramos shortly after he hadrevived the stagnant field of Afro-Brazilian studies using a modifiedversion of Rodrigues’ methodology. Both Brazilian men died in Paris in theirmidforties, just as they were reaching the summit of their respectivecareers.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 65 , Issue 1 , July 2008 , pp. 9 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2008

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Footnotes

*

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I am especially grateful to Jeffrey Needell and DavidGeggus for their comments on early drafts. Jerry Dávila and DainBorges provided invaluable bibliographic suggestions. I am alsoindebted to Jeffrey Lesser for his help revising a later version.Carson Lange deserves special thanks for reading this on severaloccasions. The article benefited from the insightful comments of twooutside reviewers, Brodwyn Fischer and Hans Pols. Any errors oromissions are my responsibility alone.

References

1 Ramos, Arthur, “Prefacio,” in Collectividades Anormaes, Nina Raimundo Rodrigues (Rio de Janeiro: Civilizaçâo Brasileira S.A., 1939), p. 12.Google Scholar

2 Nina Rodrigues (18627–1906) was a Brazilian anthropologist, psychiatrist, and professor. Popular legend posits that the curse was placed on him by members of the Afro-Brazilian population in response to his racist theories. He died in Paris in 1906 while finishing Os Africanos No Brasil, a text that described the “primitive” origins of Afro-Brazilians. Oscar Freire, one of his foremost students, also died at an early age while attempting to finish the work, suggesting that the curse persisted after Rodrigues’ death. With the help of Rodrigues’ wife and elder colleagues, the work was finally completed in 1933. See Schwarcz, Lilia Moritz, The Spectacle of the Races: Scientists, Institutions, and the Race Question in Brazil, 1870–1930 (New York: Hill and Wang, 1993), p. 331.Google Scholar

3 The works that outline these positions are Os Africanos No Brasil (São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1932) and As Ragas Humanas e a Responsibilidade Penal no Brasil (São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1938), which are both posthumous, highly influential collections of the major papers of Rodrigues’ career.

4 Comparative by nature, Rodrigues’ approach was twofold. Using a combination of anthropology and history, he investigated African cultural origins and then recorded survivals in his modern Brazil. For his contribution to Afro-Brazilian studies, see José Campos, Maria, Arthur Ramos, Luz e Sombra na Antropologia Brasileira: Urna Versão da Democracia Racial no Brasil nas Décadas de 1930 e 1940 (Rio de Janeiro: Edições Biblioteca Nacional, 2004), pp. 98–111 Google Scholar and pp. 143–157; Russell-Wood, A.J.R., The Black Man in Slavery and Freedom in Colonial Brazil (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982), pp. 8–9,CrossRefGoogle Scholar or Gusmão, Marilu;, Arthur Ramos, O Homen e a Obra (Maceió: Departamento de Assuntos Culturais-Senec, 1974), p. 51.Google Scholar For Ramos’ role in the socio-educational reform movement in the Vargas Era, 1930–1945, see Dávila, Jerry, Diploma of Whiteness: Race and Social Policy in Brazil, 1917–1945 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003), pp. 34–40.Google Scholar For his involvement with UNESCO, see Maio, Marcos Chor, “UNESCO and the Study of Race Relations In Brazil: Regional or National Issue?” Latin American Research Review 36:2 (2001), pp. 118–136 18087798CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; and, Barros, Luitgarde Oliveira Cavalcanti, Arthur Ramose as Dinâmicas Socials de Seu Tempo (Maceió: Universidade Federal de Alagoas, 2000).Google Scholar Ramos was responsible for inaugurating the UNESCO project in the late 1940s that intended to parade Brazil’s alleged racial harmony to the world. Ultimately (and unexpectedly), UNESCO-sponsored research conducted by several international scholars found that racial inequality was prevalent in Brazil. See Dávila, , Diploma of Whiteness, pp. 86–87,Google Scholar or Caulfield, Sueann, In Defense of Honor: Sexual Morality, Modernity, and Nation in Early-Twentieth-Century Brazil (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000), p. 151.Google Scholar

5 This era was characterized by a number of texts praising the African contribution to Brazilian culture, including Gilberto Freyre Casa-Grande e Senzala (The Masters and the Slaves, 1933) and Ramos’ O Negro Brasileiro (The Brazilian Negro, 1934). These authors collectively challenged the theory of bio-logical determinism that dominated the intellectual community during the preceding half-century. Freyre is correctly regarded as the foremost champion of this Afro-Brazilian revisionist movement, and his influence is well-documented. See, for example Needell, Jeffrey D., “Identity, Race, Gender, and Moder-nity in the Origins of Gilberto Freyre’s Oeuvre” American Historical Review 100: 1 (1995), pp. 51–77.10.2307/2167983CrossRefGoogle Scholar Still, Ramos was not alone in constructing an image of Brazil that proudly embraced its African heritage. Along with Ramos, Sérgio Buarque de Holanda, Gonçalves Fernandes, Edison Carneiro, and Freyre wrote on Afro-Brazilian culture.

6 Dávila, , Diploma of Whiteness, pp. 34–154.AMBIGUOUS (44298 citations)Google Scholar

7 Campos, , Arthur Ramos, pp. 45–56.AMBIGUOUS (59014 citations)Google Scholar

8 da Costa, Emilia Viotti, The Brazilian Empire: Myths and Histories, revised edition (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2000), p. 239.Google Scholar

9 Schwarcz, , The Spectacle of the Races, pp. 26–27 and pp. 35–70.Google Scholar

10 See Skidmore, Thomas, Black into White: Race and Nationality in Brazilian Thought (Durham: Duke University Press, 1993), and Schwarcz, The Spectacle of the Races.Google Scholar

11 For social Darwinism, see Schwarcz, , The Spectacle of the Races, pp. 69–61.Google Scholar Thomas Skidmore has provided the most comprehensive study of the whitening ideal in Brazil, arguing that it dominated sociopolitical policy from 1888 through 1950. See Skidmore, , Black into White, pp. 48–56 and p. 173.Google Scholar

12 Unrest among Brazilian-born workers and widespread poverty and crime forced the government to reevaluate the immigration program in 1927. See Andrews, George Reid, Blacks and Whites in Sâo Paulo Brazil, 1888–1988 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991), pp. 87–88.Google Scholar Also contributing to the demise of subsidized immigration was the military’s fear that European communists would enter Brazil in droves. The military, influenced by European racist discourse, also argued that immigration was allowing “lundesirable groups” to enter the nation, including Jews, Arabs, and East Asians. See Jeffrey, Lesser, Welcoming the Undesirables: Brazil and the Jewish Question (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), p. 11.Google Scholar

13 The dissertation was titled Primitivo e Loucura: Cadeira de Clinica Psychiatrica (Bahia: Imprensa Official do Estado, 1926). The influence of Nina Rodrigues is evident by 1922. When he was beginning his studies at the Faculdade de Medicina, Ramos published two ethnological pieces in the Jornal de Alagaos, entitled “Tradições Áfrico-Brasileiras” and “O Culto da Lua.” The following year he published “Folclore e Sociologia” in the same journal. See Gusmão, , Arthur Ramos.Google Scholar For bibliographic information, see Barros, , Arthur Ramos e as Dinâmicas Sociais de Seu Tempo, p. 22.Google Scholar

14 Unless noted otherwise, bibliographic information was collected and synthesized from two works: Ramos, Arthur, The Negro in Brazil (Washington D.C.: The Associated Publishers, Inc, 1939), pp. 10–11,Google Scholar and Arquivo Arthur Ramos: Inventário Analítico Organização e Descrição: Vera Edições Biblioteca National (Rio de Janeiro: Vera Edições Biblioteca National, 2004), p. 19. Ramos’ move to Rio and appointment within the school system is elaborated upon in Manza Corrêas As Ilusões da Liberdade: A Escola Nina Rodriguez e a Antropologia no Brasil (São Paulo: FFLCH-USP, 1982), p. 281. Dávila addresses Ramos’ role within the school system in Diploma of Whiteness, pp. 34–40.

15 Social Darwinism was the application of Darwin’s theory of natural selection to humankind, and argued for a common origin among the races. It inherently contradicted polygenism, which contended that each race had developed separately. Social Darwinism, or evolutionism, was applied in various contexts within Brazil and consequently has several definitions. To Silvio Romero, Darwinism implied that environment played a vital role in evolution. See Skidmore, , Black into White, pp. 32–36.Google Scholar

16 Schwarcz summarizes: “Specialists closely followed the teachings of the Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso and focused primarily on the physical traits of the criminal, giving scant attention to the crimes committed.” See The Spectacle of the Races, pp. 260–262. On Ferri and Lombroso, see Schwarcz, , The Spectacle of the Races, pp. 187–194.Google Scholar The 1890s saw a merger of law, science, and the Italian school in the racial discourse.

17 See Borges, Dain, “Puffy, Ugly, Slothful, and Inert: Degeneration in Brazilian Social Thought, 1880–1940,” Journal of Latin American Studies, 25:2 (May 1993), pp. 240–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18 For the Bahia school, see Schwarcz, , The Spectacle of the Races, p. 262.Google Scholar For the inclusion of Freud in their methods, see Schwarcz, , The Spectacle of the Races, p. 270.Google Scholar For the Rio school, see Schwarcz, , The Spectacle of the Races, p. 271.Google Scholar For an example of their reforms, see Needell, Jeffrey, “The Revolta Contra Vacina of 1904,” in Revolts in the Cities: Popular Politics and the Urban Poor in Latin America, 1765–1910, eds. Sylvia Marina Arrom and Servando Ortoli (Boulder: Sage, 1996), pp. 155–89.Google Scholar

19 For the Gazeta Medica da Bahia, see Schwarcz, , The Spectacle of the Races, pp. 266–267.Google Scholar The Gazeta Medica da Bahia was the journal associated with the Bahia school during the period and defines its positions.

20 Schwarcz, , The Spectacle of the Races, pp. 278–286.Google Scholar

21 For a concise explanation of Freudian psychoanalysis, see Myers, David G., Psychology (New York: Worth Publishers, 1989), pp. 410–413.Google Scholar

22 For the discussion on psychoanalysis and its position on criminal behavior, see Wetzell, Richard F., Inventing the Criminal: A History of German Criminology, 1880–1945 (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 2000), pp. 142–143.Google Scholar

23 A crucial aspect of psychoanalysis was its emphasis on adolescent development. Freud believed that personality was formatively shaped in the first few years of life and emphasized the importance of a well-adjusted, nurturing environment. From his perspective, unresolved childhood conflict generated repressed emotions that remained veiled until adulthood. See Myers, , Psychology, p. 412.Google Scholar

24 Freud’s first appearance in the Bahian medical journals was in 1924. See Schwarcz, , The Spectacle of the Races, p. 270.Google Scholar Psychoanalysis also became influential in Buenos Aires, Argentina during the same period. Like its adaptations in Brazil, the Argentine variants of psychoanalysis were closely linked to eugenics, criminology, and immigration. A comparative study could provide fascinating insights into broader Latin American interpretations and applications of lesser-studied European social sciences in the first half of the twentieth century. See Plotkin, Mariano Ben, “Freud, Politics, and the Porteños: The Reception of Psychoanalysis in Buenos Aires, 1910–1943,” The Hispanic American Historical Review, 77:1 (February 1997), pp. 45–74.10.2307/2517057CrossRefGoogle Scholar

25 Borges, , “Puffy, Ugly, Slothful, and Inert,” p. 251.AMBIGUOUS (35103 citations)Google Scholar

26 See Blueler, Eugen, Dementia Praecox; or, The Group of Schizophrenias (New York: International Universities Press, 1911, tr. 1950), pp. 71–90,Google Scholar and Lévy-Bruhl, Lucien, How Natives Think (London: G. Allen & Unwin, 1926), pp. 18–25 and pp. 35–56.Google Scholar

27 Ramos’ devotion to psychoanalytic theory is evident elsewhere. For example, see Ramos, Arthur, Freud, Adler, Jung…Ensaios de Pschyanályse Orthodoxa e Heretica (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Guanabara, 1933).Google Scholar

28 Ramos, , Loucura e Crime, pp. 54–55.Google Scholar

29 Ramos, , Loucura e Crime, p. 56.Google Scholar

30 “Arthur Ramos: Brazilian Anthropologist (1903–1949),” Phylon, 12:1 (IstQtr. 1951), p. 74.

31 Carneiro, , Phylon, p. 74.Google Scholar

32 Peixoto served as the director of Rio de Janeiro's school system from 1917–1922. An influential public figure in Rio and a supporter of eugenics, he was also a professor of public hygiene in the Rio de Janeiro School of Medicine. See Dávila, , Diploma of Whiteness, pp. 33–34,Google Scholar or Needell, Jeffrey D., A Tropical Belle Époque: Elite Culture and Society in Turn-of-the-Century Rio de Janeiro (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988), pp. 211–212.Google Scholar

33 See Gomes da Cunha, Olivia Maria, Intenção e Gesto: Pessoa, Cor e Produção Cotidiana da (In)diferença no Rio de Janeiro, 1927–1942 (Rio de Janeiro: Arquivo Nacional, 2002), pp. 329–331. For Ramos’ quote, see Loucura e Crime, p. 182.Google Scholar

34 For the merger of the two medical ideologies, see Schwarcz, , The Spectacle of the Races, pp. 293–296.Google Scholar

35 Lévy-Bruhl, , How Natives Think, p. 19.Google Scholar

36 Ramos situated the work within the “post-Nina Rodrigues phase of Negro studies with a methodological reinterpretation, and with the necessary additions to the work that the grand master left unfinished.” The “methodological reinterpretation” refers, of course, to the replacement of Rodrigues’ Lom-brosian-determinism with psychoanalysis. See Ramos, Arthur, O Negro Brasileiro (Rio de Janeiro, 2001), p. 13.Google Scholar The quote is taken from the Preface to the 2nd edition, which was initially published in 1940 and contains numerous modifications to the original. Fetishism is the belief that objects possess supernatural powers. Many contemporary scientists viewed this belief as one stage in the progression from a primitive culture to an advanced one.

37 Like Freyre, Ramos considered many African survivals to be an aspect of Brazilian culture that should be celebrated rather than ridiculed. Not all survivals were seen as positive, however. As a nationalist concerned primarily with the modernization of his country, Ramos deemed anti-Catholic, “superstitious” traditions like Candomblé to be harmful and representative of pre-logical thought. Candomblé is and was an Afro-Brazilian religious tradition characterized by spirit possession, trance, and polytheism. In O Negro Brasileiro, Ramos observed that the “pre-logic” of the primitive mind “persists for a long time, fraying progress.” Citing Lévy-Bruhl, he contended that “the mentality of inferior societies, still becoming less impermeable through experience, remains pre-logical for a long time and keeps mystic impressions in the major part of their representations.” Ramos concluded that “the persistence of the pre-logical mentality explains the survival of fétiches among black Bahians today.” See Ramos, , O Negro Brasileiro (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Graphia), 203–208.Google Scholar

38 This passage echoes, in some cases verbatim, Lévy-Bruhl’s introduction to How Natives Think, pp. 13–17. The final quote is from Ramos, Arthur, A Familia e a Escola (Conselhos de Higiene Mental aos Pais), D-Vulgarização, Série (Rio de Janeiro: Oficina Gráfica do Departamento de Educação, 1934), p. 7.Google Scholar It was borrowed from Dávila, Diploma of Whiteness, p. 40.

39 Freud, Sigmund, Totem and Taboo: Resemblances Between the Psychic Lives of Savages and Neurotics. (New York, 1918), pp. 10–11.Google Scholar

40 Ramos, , O Negro Brasileiro, pp. 256–259.Google Scholar

41 This excerpt is from Medical Brazil: 118–119, (1919), and is cited by Schwarcz, , The Spectacle of the Races, p. 286.Google Scholar

42 This was one of the many institutions founded by Getúlio Vargas between 1930 and 1945 as part of an effort of widespread social reform. See, Dávila, , Diploma of Whiteness,Google Scholar and Williams, Daryle, Culture Wars in Brazil: The First Vargas Regime, 1930–1945 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2001).Google Scholar

43 Dávila, , Diploma of Whiteness, pp. 33–34.Google Scholar While eugenics is typically associated with Nazi Germany both in popular discourse and transnational historiography, its interpretations and applications were heterogeneous. It is crucial to note that while Hitler’s extreme interpretation of the theory became an appalling reality in the 1930s, eugenics discourse originated in 1883 and knew many variants internationally. See Dikbtter, Frank, “Race Culture: Recent Perspectives on the History of Eugenics,” The American Historical Review, 103:2 (April 1998), pp. 467–478.10.2307/2649776CrossRefGoogle Scholar

44 Dikötter, , “Race Culture,” p. 473.AMBIGUOUS (20830 citations)Google Scholar To understand the differences between Lamarckism and neo-Lamarckism, see Stepan, , The Hour of Eugenics, pp. 69–70.Google Scholar The former refers to a broad, early-nineteenth-century theory of genetic succession couched in the notion of “acquired characteristics.” The latter refers to its rehabilitation by social scientists after 1885 and came to be associated specifically with the evolution of humans.

45 See Stepan, , The Hour of Eugenics, p. 73,Google Scholar and Dávila, , Diploma of Whiteness, pp. 24–25.Google Scholar While some intellectuals espoused Mendélism through the 1930s, it was not until the following decade that it supplanted neo-Lamarckism as the dominant strain of eugenics.

46 Borges explains: “The Brazilian Eugenics movement was far from unified. Some physicians argued for conservative measures to counter degeneracy, either by contraception or sterilization. Others accepted the Mendelian variant of heredity.” See “ Puffy, , Ugly, Slothful, and Inert,” p. 255.AMBIGUOUS (34411 citations)Google Scholar

47 Schwarcz, , The Spectacle of the Races, p. 256.Google Scholar

48 Ramos, Arthur, A Criança Problema: A Higiene Mental Na Escola (Rio de Janeiro: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1949), p. 13.Google Scholar Due to the rarity of the first printing, this second edition will be cited unless otherwise noted. The influence of both Lévy-Bruhl and neo-Lamarckian eugenics is evident, particularly in Ramos“ condemnation of genetic determinism: “The action of the cultural environment is immense. Man is the product of his civilization and his society. This study is the specific result of sociology and cultural anthropology. … Human behavior varies in time and space. Opinions, attitudes, desires, and human logic vary historically and geographically. ‘Culture’ impregnates the individual, giving him his characteristic façade.” See A Criança Problema, p. 40.

49 Ramos, , A Criança Problema, pp. 23–25.Google Scholar

50 Dávila, , Diploma of Whiteness, p. 43.Google Scholar

51 Ramos, Arthur, Saude do Espirito (Rio de Janeiro: Coleção SPES, 1939), p. 8.Google Scholar

52 For Ramos’ vision of his program, see A Criança Problema, p. 25.

53 Ramos, , A Criança Problema, p. 43.Google Scholar

54 Ramos, , A Criança Problema: A Higiene Mental Na Escola Primária, First Edition (Rio de Janeiro, 1939), p. 15.Google Scholar

55 Ramos, , A Criança Problema, p. 19.Google Scholar

56 Dávila, , Diploma of Whiteness, p. 49.Google Scholar

57 Ramos, , A Criança Problema, p. 140.Google Scholar

58 Ramos, , A Criança Problema, pp. 140–141.Google Scholar

59 Ramos, , A Criança Problema, pp. 186–187.Google Scholar

60 Ramos, , A Criança Problema, pp. 199.Google Scholar

61 Ramos, , A Criança Problema, pp. 200–201.Google Scholar

62 Ramos, , A Criança Problema, pp. 339.Google Scholar

63 Ramos, , A Criança Problema, pp. 339–340.Google Scholar

64 Ramos, , Saude do Espírito, p. 7.Google Scholar

65 For the attack on Afro-Brazilian religion, see Ramos, , Saude do Espírito, pp. 38–39.Google Scholar For the discussion of habits, see Saude do Espírito, pp. 42–43 and Saude do Espírito, pp. 54–56. For the quote on the importance of the nuclear family, see Saude do Espírito, p. 57. Educators believed that good nutrition was the cornerstone of adolescent physical, mental, and cultural development and distributed free lunches at school. These consisted of milk, greens, rice, and meat or eggs. See Dávila, , Diploma of Whiteness, p. 47.Google Scholar

66 Ramos, , Saude do Espirito, pp. 83–87.Google Scholar

67 For the illustrations, see Saude do Espírito, pp. 17, 33, 41, and 57. Reformers during the Vargas era frequently talked about perfecting the “Brazilian race.”

68 See, for example, Dávila, Diploma of Whiteness, or Daryle Williams, Culture Wars in Brazil

69 This letter is published in Barros, Arthur Ramos e as Dinámicas Socials de Seu Tempo, p. 18. It was written in Bahia on November 15, 1939.

70 Sapucaia, , Relambrando Arthur Ramos, p. 57.Google Scholar

71 Russell-Wood, A.J.R., The Black Man in Slavery and Freedom in Colonial Brazil, p. 9.Google Scholar