CORE UNIT: REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY 20.3 Cultural regions in Brazil
Cultural regions in Brazil (ethnic groups, language and religion)
Brazil is a racially mixed country but also a remarkably integrated society. Its population shows the results of large-scale immigrations and integrations. Any divisions between people tend to be socio-economic rather than racial.
Fig. 28 Brazil has a mix of population groups. Ethnic groups
Most Brazilians descend from three main population groups: 1. The country's indigenous Indian people (Amerindians). Before colonisation there were an estimated six million Amerindians. Today only a few hundred thousand pure-blooded Amerindians remain.
2. People of white European descent (mostly Portuguese settlers) make up over half the population.
3. People of black African (former slaves) descent.
Since the arrival of the Portuguese in 1500, considerable intermarriage between these three groups has taken place. A sizable number of more recent immigrants are Japanese. Today therefore five major groups of people make up the population of Brazil. 1. Native Americans living mainly in the north-west border regions and remote parts of the Amazon Basin, e.g. the Yanomami.
2. Portuguese whose ancestors colonised Brazil in the 1500s. Found mostly in the south-eastern regions.
3. Black Africans, whose ancestors were brought over to Brazil as slaves, are concentrated in the north-east around Salvador.
4. European immigrants who came to Brazil in the 1800s and in the first half of the twentieth century from various parts of western, central and eastern Europe.
5. The Japanese who first came to Brazil from the early 1900s to the 1940s. Most live in São Paulo State or the south of the country. (In fact Brazil contains the largest number of people of Japanese ancestry outside of Japan.)