carolineDoS SantoS1
Mariana lettieri ferreira
Milena lopeS guiMarãeS Moura
1 English undergraduate students at University of São Paulo.
E-mails: k_a.
santos@hotmail.
com; lferreira.
mariana@
gmail.com and milenamoura [email protected], respectively.
Abstract: The idea of this article is to find images that would reflect the topics discussed in the chapters “Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices” (Hall, 1997); “The Spectacle of the Other” (Hall, 1997), “The question of cul-tural identity” (Hall, 1996) and “Cultura, língua e emergência dialógica” (Menezes de Souza, 2013). We intend to analyze the images related to Brazil, focusing on the issue of the perspective of the ‘other’ and the view of cultural identity language it entails. The seventy five first pictures that come up on Google when the term “Brazil people” is typed and consequently some stereotypes related to it will be analyzed. Besides that, we have analyzed the power relation of the stereotypes and the mechanism of search in which researches on Google are based on.
Keywords: Brazilian stereotype. Cultural representations. Cultural identity.
Searching Engines.
T
his article aims to analyze critically some images in relation to cultural aspects and theories. Having decided to work with image associated with Brazilian people, we have analyzed the seventy five first pictures that come up on Google when the term“Brazil people” is typed.
It is important to point out that the research mechanism on Google is built ac-cording to our “interaction” with the website. If you type the same term today, the re-sults may be slightly different from the ones generated on December 6th this same year.
The images we click are considered to be more relevant, thus the reason why they ap-pear right at the beginning.
After the research, a chart has been built in order to help systematize the data (Chart 1). There are many interesting aspects when analyzing this kind of research.
There are related results, which are also very interesting but will not be the focus in this analysis. Most of the pictures show young people, who may be related to the image of Brazil being a “new” country; it is also noticeable that Brazilians are seen as “blessed people”, always partying and being at the beach, for example.
First of all, it is of high importance that to remember that culture is dynam-ic, as stated by Geertz (1973). Not only the images go against this theory but they also depict a stereotyped view of Brazil, which is based on an aesthetic and static view of culture. There is always an effort to homogenize culture, ignoring the dif-ferences.
The images are built from the point of view of the “other”; that is why we do not identify ourselves with all of them.
For example, upon searching about Bra-zilian people on Google, it is noticeable that Brazil is viewed as a “blessed coun-try” - the nation of soccer, native people, beaches and beautiful women. By looking at these images the following question is raised: why is Brazil being described this way? Do all Brazilians behave like this?
As sustained by Geertz, we cannot approach a culture by only relying on what we think about it; we should live it, observe it, not through the eyes of a for-eigner and their assumptions, but trying
to look through the “native” perspective.
However, that does not apply to the pres-ent case. People assume, for instance, that parties and festivals are part of Brazilians’
routine, but it is not.
Menezes (2013), in his essay Cultu-ra, Língua e Emergência Dialógica, prob-lematizes the notion of nation as an imag-ined culture: he claims that considering a culture as a unique and homogeneous aspect it is a myth that has to be decon-structed. When it comes to the pictures, there is an attempt to show people and habits homogeneously, but it does not rep-resent the vast majority of the population.
The images, for example, reduce Brazil to a place where there are half-naked and sexy women and native walking without clothes, there are parties, young people and some famous icons popping out.
The difference is important be-cause it is charged with meaning and is a way of marking local cultures’ specific-ities and understanding and constituting ourselves. Brazilians’ habits and hobbies
Chart 1 Results for the search “Brazil People” on Google. Other results: kids, marches, protests, Beyoncé (3x), pic-tures related to diversity, families, groups, beach parties, historical images
cinema are different from other countries’, due
to colonization, weather and other geo-graphic, social and cultural implications.
Therefore, acknowledging the others is a way of forming our own subjectivity. On the other hand, this is dangerous, because it may create stereotypes, as if all Brazil-ians played soccer, lived at the beach or even in the jungle. The image according to which Brazilians are always celebrating is constructed, along with the idea that there are no serious studies or meaning-ful things produced here. Not only is such image constructed, but also naturalized, so that it is normal to be so and there is nothing to do about it.
Brazilians are not part of the ones considered “powerful cultures”. More-over, they are “fruits” of miscegenation with a large number of black people, na-tive peoples and Europeans, which brings an exotic aspect to the Brazilian culture.
They are represented as group uncivi-lized and close to nature. Although their sexuality is exalted, Brazilian women seem pathologically different, as they are known for their relevant part, a “protrud-ing butt”. The majority of images shows women in informal moments and focuses on their beauty.
Stereotypes are focused on power relations, because they establish
bound-aries that exclude the powerless peoples, nations, etc. They reduce a national and grand culture to some fixed elements, as though all inhabitants were equal: living, eating, dressing and thinking accord-ing to a same pattern. It is interestaccord-ing to consider Menezes’ arguments (2013): the author states that culture is necessary to organize society and it influences the constitution of the subject, but it is also essential to consider communities’ “cul-tures”. Besides that, it is essential to real-ize that culture is dynamic and open, so it is constantly changing. New practices and relations dialogue with old ones and step by step the internal structures of culture are modified; this hybridism is positive because is the source of change.
Overall, instead of showing these images as a representation of a unique culture, people should think of it as part of a very diverse whole. The pictures are not totally far from Brazil’s reality, but they show just a part of it. There are many
“cultures” inside Brazil and not only one.
Based on what is held by Derrida (apud Menezes, 2013) we are not just one; ac-cording to the concept of “undecidibility”, we can be various and change habits at any time. Y
References
GOOGLE. How research works:
from algorithms to answers. Available at: <https://www.google.com/intl/en_us/
insidesearch/howsearchworks/thestory/
index.html>. Accessed on Dec. 9, 2014.
HALL, S. The work of representa-tion. In: _____ (org.). Representation: cul-tural representations and signifying prac-tices. London: Sage Publications & Open University, 1997. p. 2-73.
______. The spectacle of “other”.
In: _____. (org.). Representation: cultural representations and signifying practic-es. London: Sage Publications & Open University, 1997. p. 225-290. Chapter 4.
______. Questions of cultural identi-ty. London: Sage, 1996.
GEERTZ, C. The Impact of the Con-cept of Culture on the ConCon-cept of Man. In:
The interpretation of cultures. New York:
Basic Books, 1973.
SOUZA, L. M. T. M. Cultura, língua e emergência dialógica. 2013.
Available at: <http://www.academia.
edu/589594/Cultura_L%C3%ADngua_e_
Emerg%C3%AAncia_Dial%C3%B3gica>.
Accessed on Dec. 9, 2014.
cinema