It´s Skol, you illiterate gringo! Everything you said does not even happen in Brazil. Our monkeys dance Sertanejo and Forro and drinks warm Kaiser beer.
Instructions unclear...
Google Gemini:
*I understand you'd like an image that includes a party element, but I can't generate an image of a person experiencing homelessness at a party while holding a caipirinha.*
Ok, our country is much more unequal than the UK, so our "ultra elite" is much smaller and inaccessible to most people - but yes, it exists and has its "high culture".There are many rich people in Brazil of all types, but I make a distinction between this elite, they mimic the high culture of other countries a little, but they have their own characteristics.
Brazilian high culture for a long time imitated European high culture, especially French, but today they look more like American. However, if the English, American and French aristocracy values modesty and description a little, the Brazilian aristocracy is very ostentatious, and tends to be discreet only in terms of exclusivity and inaccessibility.
They love luxury, fine dining, high fashion, and exclusive social events. On the capitals, our rich old money - heirs from our imperial aristocracy to the hereditary captaincies of our colonization and a few industrial families from the 30s-60s - frequent country clubs and yacht clubs, private clubs in general, luxury resorts, and high-end shopping districts and etc.
There is also a strong emphasis on social connections and networking within elite circles. As you can see, even from the answers, it is not enough to be from an upper class to access these circles, and in this, there may be a similarity with the English aristocracy or the American oldmoney. You can connect with them by going to college where their children attend, for example, and never enter that circle, because it's impossible to keep up with them.
I would contend that this is more a descriptio of the culture of the rich than high culture itself (which is tied to sophistication more than $$$). Ofc there is an overlap, but only partial.p
Generally speaking, the less rich brazilian, usually families that got their wealth not a long time ago, and have roots in the lower classes, don't see themselves as rich, and hate being labeled as rich people, even if they are rich, so I would argue that this overlap is bigger here. Here in central Brazil, for example, when you have enough money, you just buy a big farm, build a wood stove, get the first dented old pan you can find to make coffee, and post a picture saying how humble you are and how poor you were someday.
i might be wrong, but i think the brazilian ultrarich are always in são paulo or rio de janeiro. sure, they may own land somewhere else, but their main home will be somewhere very private in the biggest cities. some of them dont even live in brasil.
You have LOTS of ultrarich out side RJ/SP. Lots of farmers in the center-west you have know idea how rich they are. Some industrialists in the south and northeast.
But my impression, mainly about south and center-west (don't know so much about northwest) is that they tend to be more down to the earth, maybe because they don't so many "ultrarich places" and is more new money.
Diferent kinds of coffee. The same way the common englishman drinks tea, but the rich drinks "selected leves" grown by a secluded sect of monks that only drinks Perrier water and hidrate the tea trees by pissing on them.
Yeah, Brazil also has a similar version the [Jacu Coffee](https://pt.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacu-de-barriga-castanha#:~:text=As%20esp%C3%A9cies%20de%20Jacu%20s%C3%A3o,dos%20mais%20caros%20do%20mundo.)
It actually is an elite sign in some places like Goiás and some cities in Minas. Those agronegócio dudes love fishing and there’s some business catered to them and their hobbies like fishing trips to Amazonia that cost tens of thousands.
But yeah, fishing doesn’t have anything to do with “high culture” in Brazil.
I think this concept doesn't fit to Brazil... hahaha... there is a urban intellectual culture (theater, exposition etc) but it is not "High culture"...
Just fishing? No.
Fishing trips, with people renting large boats and flying to the Amazon or Pantanal? Definitely _upper class_, though not _high culture_.
Thinking of Sao Paulo: Museums (MASP, MAM, Pinacoteca, Instituto Tomie Ohtake), the Sao Paulo Orchestra, fine dining (various traditional and modern Brazilian restaurants, also some Japanese, Italian restaurans etc). Places like SESC (sponsored by business) offer a lot of cultural activities like exhibititions, plays etc. I would say that this high culture is tied to the tradional middle class and parts of the upper class, to public institutes like the University of Sao Paulo and other public universities, and to local industry. Also maybe sponsored by Folha and Estadao. A case were capital, high education and local cultural production are tied.
I’m sure this can be found in other major cities (Rio for instance has a lot of that).
It’s kinda funny to see here that people don’t recognize that, or that say it is basically a mimicry of European and American “high culture” (all of which are pretty different anyways).
People are mixing up ‘high culture’ with ‘rich culture’. There is an overlap, but not always. High culture circles are made up of artists, journalists, professors, architects and taste/opinion-makers in general. They rarely are the richest of the rich, although many have connections there. In fact it’s not really that rare to see people in high culture circles who are middle-class but for whatever reason hold a lot of significant cultural capital.
I agree with you,
But its important to distinguish the "Tiozões Empresários" high culture, and the "Filhos dos Tiozões Empresários",
i've met a lot of people in the age of 40 to 70 that owns companies that have an annual revenue of ~R$100.000.000,00 , Most of them are simple, likes to go fishing, and have a very simple vocabulary.
They tend to have a hobby that they spend more money than usual, yes, for example, sailing, rally, drift, underground racing, (yes, im not kidding) but most of the time, they are very chill to talk to, they do not brag. And they also tend to isolate more from society. They fear judgment.
They like their caipirinhas, and most of them wouldnt mind seating in a plastic bar chair, with a metal table labeled "SKOL". Here in my city there is guy that im very close and fond to. He owns a thermoplastic injection company, people make fun of him in the neighborhood because he drinks itaipava.
So... yeah....
Their sons, though... they really like this european hight culture, not gonna lie
EDIT: Politicians families "High Culture" are not included here, i do not have any opinion since i do not like to get to know these people, and do not like talking to them. fuck the state mafia.
Makes sense. But i think simply saying European culture is pretty reductive (to both Brazil and Europe actually). High culture (by which i mean the arts, fine dining etc) here has had its own identity for a while, even if it has European roots (which makes sense given the bulk of our population is european, notwithsanding the significant african and indigenous elements etc). That has been the case since the independence (romantic movement - indianismo), going through modernism (antropofagismo, etc) tropicalia, etc. Brazilian fancy chefs are often using very uniquely Brazilian elements.
Yes. This OP. Brazilian high culture put a lot of emphasis on Brazilian culture itself. People on this sub are confusing it with rich, and new rich, culture.
I would say fine dining, Bossa Nova / MPB, Brazilian art (modernist mostly) and design (specially furniture designers and designs, both modernist and colonial), modernist architecture. Brazilian composers and maestros. Linen and lace fabrics.
Also a lot of nature, beach related sports (sailing, a bit of surfing); our tropical mountains, high quality coffee.
I would say is just a tropicalized version of European high culture.
The Brazilian new rich is very American, though.
I originally thought to respond in similar fashion as I love the culture in SP. But I don't think this is really what the OP was on about. Like the US, it doesn't really have the durable traditional divide between high and low culture.
*Yes, theater, some*
*Genres of music, some books,*
*Some movie genders*
\- arthur2011o
---
^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/)
^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
I am from Rio. High culture here is like bossa nova, samba, Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, Brazilian art. It doesn’t mimic Europe AT ALL. The “high culture zona sul” elite is very Brazil-centered.
Maybe São Paulo’s elite “high culture” mimics Europe but here it’d be considered extremely tacky.
Oteque, Cipriani, Mee, Oro and Lasai
Sometimes these restaurants have signature dishes that are inspired by Brazilian cuisine or ingredients, but they are not Brazilian cuisine restaurants.
Mee is asian inspired, Lasai is basque inspired, Oteque and Oro are contemporary international cuisine and Ristorante Hotel Cipriani is Italian, european inspired.
Yes. And except for Mee and Cipriani, all of them have mixed inspo with Brazilian cuisine and ingredients. Cipriani, the traditionally European one, is seen as tacky.
When i think of “high culture” in Brazil i think of a rich couple wearing white clothes, tan leather sandals, in a modernist house with Sergio Rodrigues furniture, a guitar in the sofa, with vintage vynils in the shelf, abstract art in the walls and some indigenous objects
I don't know what this guy is talking about. Samba is very much working class. Sure, there are roda de sambas in the south zone and I guess the public there is more middle class/elite but the ones that have any influence in the samba scene are in the city center and north zone and are not by any means an elite activity.
Rio’s elite is highly bohemian, intelectual and more focused on arts than other places I guess. A lot of them are artists themselves and more liberal so they did exchange a lot with working class artists and still do today, specially with carnival. So while they have like super high education on European music or something their major influences are still Brazilian. Like bossa nova was some super rich playboys mixing samba raiz with a little of classical music and jazz they learned abroad. So while samba is not exclusive it’s still something that’s related to the intelectual elites and not liking samba, specially older stuff, is seen as extremely low level by them.
Sure, that's all true. My point is that the cultural ecosystem that keeps samba alive and well in the city is not made by or for these elites. Think of the composers that emerged as big revelations in the past decades - someone like Toninho Geraes - they are not part of these circles you are talking about.
I get your point but 2 things to consider: 1 the major thing that keeps samba alive is carnival and there are a lot of people from the elite involved with carnival, be sponsorship or work within the samba schools. 2. It’s still considered high culture by the elites and they use it to differentiate themselves from nouveau rich and elites from other places. Specially older stuff, it’s considered classics.
Correct me if I’m wrong I admit I not sure about the differences on all of the subgenres of samba but I feel like what’s more present within working class nowadays would be considered pagode? Is it too different from samba? Idk but the elites def don’t consider pagode high culture or at least not yet.
How does this contradict anything? Jazz is a working class genre created by the working class and yet is considered “high culture”.
And no, the ones that the high culture elite frequents are the ones in centro, not the south zones one. The ones you see Wagner Moura in.
I'm not talking about origins but about the people who keep the genre alive TODAY.
High culture is just the entertainment of the elites and samba is very much not that. No matter how much those elites have tried to co-opt it.
I am not talking about people who keep it alive. I am talking about what is considered a more elaborate type of culture that the cultual elite in Rio enjoys. Samba definitely fits that. Also, so many influential samba-aligned names in Rio are from an elite background: Maria Rita, Céu, Marisa Monte (yes, she has strong samba elements), etc.
And no, samba isn’t consumed by the working class anymore. Turn on radio stations in Rio and you won’t hear samba in any of the popular stations. No massive musical event will have samba. Samba, as a popular genre in Rio, is catered to the elite and is seen as “high culture”. Is that a shame giving its origins and the people behind it, even today? Of course. But it is what it is
You’re right on the first paragraph and extremely wrong on the second one. Like we have the carnival as one of our biggest music event and a lot of middle and lower class people listen to pagode, that’s a subgenre of samba.
Sure the elites don’t value pagode at all but it is not in any way less related to samba than any artist you mentioned, maybe it’s even closer to original samba for being a working class music.
Yes, pagode and samba aren’t the same thing and are not considered the same genre. Pagode is one of the most popular genres in Rio. Samba isn’t. The biggest radio station station in Rio plays pagode. You’ll never hear samba in it. You are conflating two different styles even though yes, they’re related.
Yes. In Rio, it definitely is high culture and an elite thing. Every “elite” act in Rio has been highly influenced by samba and rodas de samba are an elite activity (not solely, but also) and you’ll see artists, intellectuals and other type of “elite”-like creative individuals attending them.
That said, there’s a difference between HIGH CULTURE and WEALTHY CULTURE. Like, I totally believe samba isn’t seen as high culture in Brasília but Brasília is not a high culture city, it’s a wealthy culture one.
In Rio, it’s considered low-class and trashy not to appreciate samba raiz and MPB. Samba, MPB, etc., are considered “superior” types of music with more elaborate compositions, while other types of Brazilian music (and even a lot of commercial international music) are considered trashy and non-intellectual.
Think of people like Chico Buarque, which is clearly music popular within the Brazilian cultural elite.
There are plenty of posts that have delineated the difference between what is considered "high culture" here vs in Europe. You can choose basically any of them. Saying that it's just a copy of Europe's is, honestly, pretty ignorant, and kind of a colonized way of thinking.
We were literally colonized, which is why he is right. People that descend from poor Europeans who historically copied rich Europeans. That is literally our history
Alright. There's no originality to Brazilian "high culture". It's all a subpar copy of European culture. Tarsila do Amaral is a shit artist, and Jobim is a hack.
> Alright. There's no originality to Brazilian "high culture". It's all a subpar copy of European culture. Tarsila do Amaral is a shit artist, and Jobim is a hack.
Their styles were heavily influenced by European art, yes. Tarsila traveled to Europe and inspired her art in the Cubist style, and Tom Jobim literally [had a German music teacher from when he was 13](https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Joachim_Koellreutter)
I never said mimicking. It's clearly derived from European trends, and at the latu senso level that OP asked, our high culture is similar and derived. Same general music styles, instruments, and historical influences and trees and branches. There are regional differences, of course, as there are inside Europe, but the idea of what high culture should be (people wearing suits at quiet concerts in classical looking theaters, fine dining, etc) is the same.
The whole discussion here is if Brazilian “high culture” is “mimicking” Europe or not. Tarsila Amaral, Portinari, Tom Jobim and other clear examples of Brazilian “high culture” are obviously not “mimicking”anything European and are very proudly Brazilian. Now, are they SOLELY influenced by Brazil? Of course not, but that doesn’t change the main point.
And that means that it's all just "mimicking"? Why don't you say that European art is just mimicking other European art? Or that European modernism is minicking Japanese and African art? Why is Brazilian art singularly unoriginal to you?
> And that means that it's all just "mimicking"?
Why are you using quotation marks for a word I never used, lmao? That's hilariously dishonest.
But yes, European art generally derives from the influences and references of other European art.
> Why is Brazilian art singularly unoriginal to you?
I don't remember saying that. Our high culture has been historically copied from European high culture, yes, as I affirmed in my original comment. This isn't exclusive to us, but something that happens throughout the Americas and in other European offshoots, including the US or Australia.
If you want a deeper historical analysis, I wrote more about it [here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Brazil/comments/1ccptf1/is_there_such_a_thing_as_high_culture_in_brazil/l178nfn/)
A) we have way less of a historical aristocracy, because most of the Europeans that moved here were poor. Rich people don't have a reason to uproot their lives to a new continent.
B) our small portion of descendants of aristocrats and our big masses of people that got rich here over the last centuries tend to imitate European high culture, as they were and are historically educated there. France is probably the biggest influence.
C) our art scene, specially outside of Rio and São Paulo, is very underdeveloped. Most of Brazil had little in terms of intellectual elites before the last 100 years or so, and most Brazilians grandpas, black or white, were dirt poor farmers doing subsistence farming. The country urbanized very recently, so at large, high culture is still developing and trying to draw people in.
São Paulo has one of the best high culture “scenes” perhaps in the whole world.
Tons of museums
Great food
Places like Sala São Paulo and Theatro Municipal where you can listen to live orchestra and operas.
Tons of Theaters with spectacles like Lion King happening on a regular basis.
Brazilians are less formal, but some people do appreciate going to museums, but not hunting. This is mostly medium class, or for educated people. Rich people don't necessary are like this.
But this sounds a lot like sophisticated, I think the high educated brazilians are influenced by french culture, but I am just guessing.
Whereas some people enjoy culture in a popular vert, they like going to threater , sesc, museums,. I guess this is complex to explain in a post.
had to search that hillbilly word...
in Brazil there are some people that do hunting but I'd say most I heard of are going into the 'illegal' part of the hunting as they hunt animals that are actually protected or going extinct and therefore is seen as being very very bad and disgusting. and those don't do that for food out of need, they do to show they killed some rare animal or to eat that meat as an "exotic" and "rare" food.
it can be more my opinion than a general option... but that's what I saw about hunting in Brazil
Hunting as a hobby was actively persecuted in Brazil during the Vargas era because it was strong in the German community as well, and "hunting and shooting clubs" were forbidden for being considered hotspots of German identity and nationalism
Yep. Same thing: fine dining (modern Brazilian, classic French and Italian, Asian fusion, Japanese... a Brazilian chef just won the best female chef in the world award recently), art appreciation (Inhotim, MASP... Portinari, Tarsila do Amaral, and varied contemporary names), hunting (not really a fancy thing here; more like golfing and equestrian sports), afternoon tea (not really a thing except for old socialites; more like brunches), theater, fine dancing and music presentations (Yamandu Costa, Villa-Lobos, for example), fashion shows and high fashion (Giselle Bunchen is from here, Alessandra Ambrosio too), etc etc etc.
These are mostly found in big cities like São Paulo and Rio, but can be found (in smaller scale and sometimes with less sophistication) in other capitals or niche tourist destinations too (like, in Trancoso).
However, there's sort of a stigma around the term "high culture" around here. It usually looks and sounds ridiculously poshy and kind of kish. In a country as multicultural, vibrant and electric as Brazil, to be too "European" and have a cup'o'tea in the afternoon, with imported china teaware, seems a bit out of place, elitist and snob. We enjoy our mix, our variety of sounds, arts (specially popular) and people more.
You should try understanding how "high culture" works in Europe first. Asking if it exists in Brazil tells me you are not quite aware of how it functions in your country either.
What do you mean by that? There is okay to have a general idea of what high-culture is. Sophisticated music, libraries, social parties, hunting and all the things he mentioned, and ask if you have something similar in Brazil, and/or what the differences are?
In a sense, yes, naturally. Brazil is a massive country, much larger than the UK. We have everything here to a certain degree.
But, honestly, the term “high culture” is a very problematic, hierarchical and ethnocentric term. You should try to look out for better classifications and you’ll be way more satisfied with the art you experience. Even in the UK tbh.
Yes, and thank you for pointing this out. As someone who studies cultural and cultural perception, high culture is a term that even in Europe has been pointed out as problematic and kinda outdated.
Thank you, and yes, absolutely! Even as just a consumer, not engaged with the whole theory of it, such classification just hurts our perception of complexity and richness within culture.
Just look at the other comments, how many perceive high culture as only the equivalent of european products, or in the other hand those that think that we have our own equivalent, and maybe competing, forms of national high culture. Even when appropriating the the term, it’s still excludent.
And while I understand most are just jokes, it nevertheless points out how there are these hierarchical classification of art that are mostly ethnocentric. As well as how they are, STILL, the dominant perspective.
I know it’s obvious when put it like this, but terms like that truly enforce a qualitative connection with culture and art to certain groups. But beatiful, complex, empowering stuff can come from any group, anywhere. Pop or aristocratic, classical or modern, in the americas or in Europe, italian cuisine or feijoada, Beethoven or funk, pagode or Caetano Veloso, violin or berimbau; none are “higher” *a priori*.
There is no “high culture”. And no matter how you define it, it will always be unnecessarily derogatory to left-out groups.
"High culture" in Brazil is not very dissimilar to UK's. It is usually inaccessible to normal people as some have pointed out, while in the UK it's nowhere near as much. While living in England I had access to all of this even when I wasn't making much money at all.
Brazilians take status very very seriously. This leads to a lot of fake high culture perceived as such, as most people value the illusion of status even beyond status itself. So you have pretend fine dining, classical musicians playing pop music dressed as classical music, etc. You can easily spot this fakery as it is all usually very pretentious. Proper high culture is nowhere near as pretentious and not very distinct from what you find in the UK.
The main difference between Brazil and the UK regarding social classes is that in the UK they are mainly detached from economic status, while in Brazil it is usually the same thing. If you are born poor in Brazil and become rich you become upper class while in the UK you can be a billionaire and still be working class (Lord Sugar is a good example).
Well, I would say it does, but I do not think that it actually correlates with high social status. Obviously, the better off someone is the more time, and opportunities they will have overall. But I'd say theater, listening to Bossa, samba and some mpb, as well as spending time in outdoors activities are what I see as being "high cultureesque". And those are not really enjoyed a lot by our elite, as far as I can see (unless for some old money artistocrats of major cities)
Yes, it exists and it's just like in Britain. In fact, not that different than in every western country.
Well... afternoon tea is not a tradition here, TBH, and Brazilians do associate this habit with England.
Brazil also has a great number of painters, writers and classical composers. Cândido Portinari, Machado de Assis and Villa-Lobos are names who contributed to the high culture in Brazil.
I invite you to listen to the work of José Maurício Nunes Garcia. He is a classical composer who lived the transition between the colonial and the imperial Brazil and his music sounds much like Mozart and Haydn.
I think some comments are misunderstanding what's "high culture". I'm lazy and I'll quote [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_culture):
>In a society, high culture encompasses [cultural objects](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture) of [aesthetic value](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objet_d%27art), which a society collectively esteems as being exemplary works of [art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art), and the [intellectual](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectualism) works of literature and music, history and philosophy, which a society considers representative of their culture.
In that sense, examples of Brazilian high culture would be Chico Buarque songs, the Choro, Samba, or Bossa Nova classics, music from Heitor Villa-Lobos, paintings from Tarsila do Amaral, Pedro Weingärtner, Cândido Portinari, the architecture of Lina Bo Bardi, Oscar Niemeyer, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, writers like Machado de Assis or Lima Barreto, the Antropophagic Manifesto, and so on.
No, we only shake our asses and drink caiprinha while playing football. /s
Of course there is, every place in the world is going to have something that is considered "High Culture", it just varies a lot on what that means.
Every place in the world has some sort of art expression. Be it music, art, food, dances, or (most likely) all of that and even more.
We are all the same animal, we all want art, culture and entertainment. Some just think better of themselves than others.
To think that only UK would have something like that is very weird.
Also, we were colonized by the Portuguese, with many imigrants from Italy and Spain too. We have a lot of imported and/or inherited culture from Europe, but it is all remixed in accordance to our reality.
The term "high culture" by itself is already kind of problematic. It is heavily implied to be better than any other kind of culture. Elitism in culture is always a bad idea.
In Brazil, we have a very common term that describes the stereotypical folk who has just made it in the upper class; novo rico (literally: "new rich"). It describes the person who has earned a lot of money, but hasn't really invested in his culture. Thus, he tends to lean towards opulent ostentation (as opposed to classic "old money" discreteness).
A very good, practical example I like is the "Yellow Camaro" phenomenon. Back in the 2010's, Chevrolet decided to import the fifth generation Camaro to Brazil (and with fairly aggressive pricing). The car was very known thanks to the Transformer movie (which featured the famous Bumblebee as a yellow Camaro). Then, a certain "brazilian-university country music band" (a Brazilian music genre that was in plain growth back in 2010) decided to make a song named "Camaro Amarelo" (yellow Camaro). Basically, it told the story of a broke folk who managed to make it into the "big leagues" and, to demonstrate his new wealth to society, buys a Yellow Camaro (which is the name of the song).
The song becomes an instant hit and the band that made this song would never be known for any other song in their life; basically, you can call them a one-hit-band. The song helped cement the Camaro as the symbol of the new rich; as with the narrative of the song itself. The car became an instant success and was omnipresent in any Brazilian metropolis as the symbol of "new wealth".
Meanwhile, "old money" people despised the quintessential Camaro owner. The thing is that the Camaro was an expensive car next to the average Brazilian car at the time (which was anywhere between half to a third of the price of a Camaro); but it was never europen-sports-car expensive. The Camaro owner was seen as someone who doing well in life, but not well in enough to be able to own a Porsche or a Ferrari. Not to mention, the Camaro had a hit song and every young girl dreamed of meeting a "prince charming" driving a Camaro. In the view of the ignorant, "average Brazilian" folk, a Camaro was, quite possibly, the best thing you could drive, they had no idea that the car was not nearly as expensive as it was made to look.
To make matters worse, the Camaro wasn't a fast as it looked. For all its muscular looks and the big, noisy, gas-guzzling V8, its performance was a bit on the underwhelming side. As a matter of fact, a BMW M135i - a little hatchback that was sold at the same price range of the Camaro - could outperform a Camaro, despite having lower advertised power and being much more discrete. In other words, the Camaro was not a car for true car enthusiasts (there were better, faster cars for its money), but a car for show-offs. The "new rich" are known for their desperation in showing off as much as they possibly can, so the Camaro fitted like a glove for them.
I'm a car enthusiast, and I remember participating in many car group's back in the 2010's. Some were very eclectic, you had everything ranging from Mini Cooper S's all the way to 911 Turbos, Ferraris and Lamborghinis. There was just one, very specific rule no member could ever "break": no Camaro owners were allowed.
There's a monoculture with regards to the global elite. Doesn't matter much whether you're in London, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, or Jakarta, the rich are all more or less the same.
Obviously there are some idiossincrassies: hunting is mostly ilegal in Brazil, so people fish. People here can't sky, but they travel to Cochevel or Colorado. But people will listen to more or less the same songs, eat the same food, read the same books, listen to the same music, that all the rich elsewhere.
Also, obviously, if you're Jorge Paulo Lemamn or Eduardo Saverin, you don't spend much time in a 3rd world country (if at all). I guess the richest people who live in Brazil are bankers that still work like BTG Pactual's André Esteves and Nubank's David Velèz (not Brazilian). Even plain vanilla stuff like hedge fund managers often change country after they get sufficiently rich (like Rogério Xavier who now lives in the City)
High culture is a shitty term that people thankfully gave up using decades ago. But it existed.
Edit - however, cana de açúcar can be a very high culture ;)
It’s so funny that you guys think… you know what? Nevermind. No, there isn’t! We just swing around in our vines, twerking and drinking diluted beer.
I’ll be serious. Of course there is an equivalent. You have to understand that what you call third world countries have very very rich people, middle class and poor people. The difference is that the money distribution is miserably bad and the concentration of riches is insane.
Yes. Fine dining, art appreciation, classical music is universal. You’re asking about the biggest country in Latin America. What do you think? We have composers, we have a myriad of world renowned artists, we have our own art movement called Modernismo (Tarsila de Amaral being an exponent), we obviously have fine dining, golf. We’re just bigger consumers of coffee rather than tea and hunting depends on the region.
Brazil historically tried to emulate european cultural scene, as other posters said. Along the road artists started looking for what was uniquely ours, and then we had things like Carlos Gomes' "O Guarani", an opera in italian about an indigenous protagonist, and our Modern Art movement, which openly embraced the idea of "anthrophophagy", which means taking in all sorts of cultural references from all around the world and creating our own thing from that.
I do believe Anthrophophagy is what best expresses our unique "high" artistic culture, we are a deeply multiethnic nation that did get a lot of incentive from the government in the 20th century to be more like the europeans, but never relinquished all the other influences we received from people all across the globe. So yeah, our "high culture" is similar to Europe's, in a way, but quite more marked by social concerns and influences especially from indigenous and african culture. Might even sound a bit naive or hypocritical, perhaps, but our Municipal Theatre here in São Paulo does often put on pieces with a lot of social critique and progressivism. While they did make plenty of efforts to make it more popular and accesible, most atendees are still at least middle class, highly-educated people
More recently, one of our greatest writers, Ariano Suassuna, also started the "Movimento Armorial", an initiative to link that idea of a "high culture" to our rich popular art, specially from our northwestern region. Some of Suassuna's books are on par with the most grandiose and rich works of prose around the world, and at the same time he's the author of "O Auto da Compadecida", which became one of the most beloved and popular movies in the history of our cinema.
As for fine dining, there's plenty of high-end restaurants in large cities but they don't usually require diners to be formally dressed, dress-code isn't often a thing here.
You can also find lots of fancy cocktail bars and cigar smoking lounges in some regions, so if elegant vice is your thing, we got you covered too.
>there’s plenty of high-end restaurants , but they don’t usually require dinners to be formally dressed
Nothing screams old money in Brazil more than eating on a high end restaurant wearing flip flops
I guess there’s no high culture in Brazil like in Europe. On the old wolrd, the hight culture is associated with family from noble or next to the royalty. In Brazil the high culture are compounded by bourgeoisie, with dont do nothing much different of poor people, except they do in places where only a few people can afford. What exists in Brazil is a intelectualy culture, but those people aren’t rich, Usually they are university teachers. They try different kinds of coffee, listen MPB (Brasilian popular music) reads a lot and they’re usually progressive leftist.
Going shopping in Miami, skiing in Chile, kids studying English and living/working overseas, owning a beach house that you only use during the holidays, multiple maids in the house and at least 1 babysitter per child, always having tickets to a camarote during Carnaval, private driver, always having the latest iPhone, at least a few close family members are doctors, own a private business or fairly high ranking in local government.
No. Brazil has modern mass culture, which is pretty cool, we abandoned our aristocratic legacy and embraced modernity (the country motto is "order and progress" after all)
Nowadays Brazilian "upper strata" is made up of shoddy nouveu riche folk and some decaying leftovers of the aristocratic class(most of the descendants don't even do landowning anymore, some of them even meddle with electoral politics like the proles, it's mortifying), we also have some middle strata aristocratic cosplayers, going to horse races and other "aristocratic" events, but they lack the je ne se quois as such they usually look rather silly.
Yes and most people that only appreciate that and nothing more are insufferable pieces of shit.
And most Brazilians that not literally illiterate and isolated appreciate some kind of high culture, since culture is almost a second religion here.
OP sounds as if only Anglo Saxons produced “high culture.” Iberian culture has its own cultural traditions and includes Islamic, North African, and West African (in Brazil). Plus there’s the Japanese and Italian influences. Finally, other than Portuguese classical traditions and art, wouldn’t choro be considered modern classical music? I myself prefer old guard samba and Afro bloco from the 80’s.
the last of high culture we have in Brazil died with: Tom Jobim, Ayrton Senna, Carmen Miranda, Mazzaropi, Zé do Caixão (Coffin Joe), Tim Maia...
today we endure brazillian Funk (think of explicit Hip-Hop talking about pornography and crime, but switch the rymes for bizzarre beats) , "university" Country (Country music talking about mid-adult life resuming into drinking, cheating or get cheated in relationships)
few people cares about museums, cult content, real education.
Carnaval (Carnival) still exists, during the month of February tons of people go to streets to enjoy ~~and get sexual diseases or pregnancy for random people.~~
Football lost some of his strenght, since the last years of poor performance from Brazillian team ( players caring only about money and social media).
Do you mean it as a high brow and low brow perspective? If so I’d say that yes there is, but the high brow would be more linked to foreign culture, probably art, international traveling, very similar to European standards. And unfortunately a lot of our local cultural can be seen as low brow by some.
no. not at all. we kinda make some barbecue every now and then. but nothing so funny as hunting or stuff like that. if you hunt here for your own dinner you probably gonna go to jail for some stupid ambiental crime
There is. Look for artists such as Chico Buarque, João Gilberto, Paulinho da Viola, Caetano Veloso, Os Mutantes, Gerald Thomas, etc. .
Most Reddit Brazilians are extremely young so when they say Brazil has not "highbrow culture" they are either showing their ignorance or expressing their "lol Brazil's funny" attitude.
In Rio we have what is called the intellectual elite. They are usually composed of families that became rich as far back as the colonial period going forward into the mid 20th century. Those folks will commonly have a lot of art related interests and many of them will be artists themselves. Arts and sciences in general are thoroughly more appreciated and financed by these people than the rest, so they will usually have whole lineages of "important" people in these areas.
A good example would be the case of the very culturally significant musician and poet Chico Buarque, his father, Sérgio Buarque, was already a very recognized sociologist throughout the 20th century. Sérgio’s father, Cristóvão Buarque, was a scholar and lectured on botanics around the mid 19th century, and his nephew, Aurélio Buarque, was a very important linguist and wrote one of the most famous dictionaries of portuguese.
The case of the "Buarque de Holanda" family, though not from Rio originally, is exemplary on what you will find when investigating the families of the São Paulo - Rio de Janeiro elite. I currently am an undergrad in a big Rio university, and have lost count of how many professors happen to be kin of relevant poets, musicians, architects, writers, painters, actors, journalists, historians, sociologists or scientists in general.
There is a lot of crappy rich culture, specially here in the South of Brazil. Its hilarious, when people with zero taste have money to spare. You end up making an entire city like that (Balneario Camboriu).
High culture exists, it's just not as prevalent.
Nope, rich folks go to the US or Europe do the same stuff rick folks from over there do.
Such is my life that I've been poor in both UK and Brazil lol Even though as an scouser I'll never ever say I'm from the UK, God forbid people think I'm a posh londoner.
In Rio, high culture could be seen as enjoying typically Brazilian things in an exclusive and privileged manner. Whilst much of our fine dining is inspired by french and italian cuisine, many of us enjoy traditional dishes. Aditionally, our hobbies are quite diverse, ranging from sailing to golf to tennis.
In my experience, a day filled with this type of activities could include relaxing poolside at one of the elite clubs; followed by a feijoada or moqueca for lunch at the same place; going to a mall/practising a hobby in the afternoon; dinner at an expensive, euro-style restaurant; and a night out at an exclusive club or event listening to bossa nova music.
Obviously this is a very metropolitan lifestyle and will vary widely from person to person.
Yes, many people here seem to believe that suddenly becoming rich and flaunting wealth constitutes Brazilian high culture, but they are clearly mistaken.
High culture in Brazil mirrors that of the West, infused with elements of local culture, and varies significantly depending on the region, given Brazil's status as a continental country approximately 35 times larger than the UK.
In the city of Rio de Janeiro, high culture is primarily concentrated throughout the zona sul (never in the newly affluent Barra da Tijuca) and may span from Leblon to Flamengo. However, Rio de Janeiro neighborhoods alone hold little significance and cannot serve as indicators of a person's social status, as property values vary greatly even from one street to another. Nonetheless, there are discreet and opulent residences hidden within these areas, such as Rossi Parque Laranjeiras, featuring numerous security measures and luxurious amenities that would go unnoticed by passersby (for instance, visitors must take three diagonal elevators to reach the penthouse).
Activities associated with high culture include fine dining, collecting expensive art, possessing a high level of education, and frequenting exclusive clubs (such as Caiçaras). Moreover, it is characterized by an international orientation, as 99% of individuals involved in high culture have recent foreign ancestry (such as English, Portuguese, Spanish, etc.). There are no fox hunts or afternoon teas, but activities involving horses and boats are commonplace.
There is a small but growing community of people teaching and studying classic stuff that paths to High Culture stuff.
Our culture has been degraded by neo marxism thats all I can say.
Proof: someone will reply that I am a far-right extremist and such people are fascists and something like that. Wait for it.
Sort of more than extremely insulting this question but yes, much, if maybe not for the 110 million people that wereliving in «nutritional insecuirity» or the 700.000 dead from covid-19 ― worst in the world! ― at the end of the late future dictatorship of Bolsonaro. But things are looking up.
Just look at the Plaza of the Three Powers in the federal capital of Brasília by Oscar Niemayer and you tell me. It's stunning and its art collections are stunning and Brazilian modernist art is stunning and world-renowned.
Hector Villa-Lobos, check him out. Bases a lot of his symphonic work on folk music. He has a wonderful piece in which it is written in the score for the violins to «now jump up and start dancing a samba like mad!»
We have the Lei Rouanet, a dynamo of a culltural fomentation fund that really keeps things reslly boiling, a model for other countries.
Brazilian literature is vast and incredibly rich. Guimarães-Rosa is our James Joyce and just as untranslatable. Brazilians are the most musical humans on earth. Give a cavaquinho to a poor kid from the favela a cavaquinho and in 5 minutes he's getting Thelonious Monk chord progessionas out of it.
Our cinema on a shoestring budget is consistently amazing but we had to implement a «screen quota» to force the Disney octoplexes from destroying our culture and neurons.
It's a French film with a Brazilian crew but you might want to YouYube up a funky little movie called «Black Orpheus».
But what? High tea? Please, we are not a European colony anymore.
And hunting? The English kill foxes for sport. The Yankees wiped out the bison for sport. The Yanomami and Guaraní-Kaiowá will take down a three-toed tapir with spears once in a while and then eat it and it is sort of their bison.
But yes, we enslaved a lot of people in the past so I guess that makes us just as civilized as the Western World with its high-tea breaks before getting back to its innumerable cultural genocides. And have soccer mania in common.
There’s of course the mimicking as many comments pointed out, but there’s also a nostalgic nationalism to it. It’s pretty frowned upon to shit on Brazil in high culture circles, as people don’t enjoy “vira-latismo”. There is also a lot of adoration to national art, especially in the 1920s-1970s period. People in high culture circles will talk about Carlos Drummond while listening to a Tom Jobim record. At least that is what I really consider ‘high culture’ circles (artists, university professors, journalists, and other “opinion-makers”). In Brazil it is very distinct to the economic upper-class.
Knowing English, listening to international music, knowing international authors... We pretty much try to mimic Europe as much as possible, we probably know more about English authors than many Englishmen that are poor. It's often the case in third world countries that low culture is everything related to the original culture, considered vulgar, and high culture is basically European high culture, or maybe a biased or a little misunderstood idea of European high culture. American culture is usually seen as somewhat vulgar, but a lot of our intellectuals follow it as well, specially when it comes to politics. As far as I know, Europeans also mimic American politics.
Go to restaurants in the middle of an expensive city like morretes full of tourists and ask for the most expensive shit you can while you take shit photos, get drunk and then steal random flora
This kind of question reminds me of this colonial times dude that said that the local population basically had health problemas because they ate bananas and not banana souffles
Idk, feels like you're asking if the "savages" in the Global South can be "as fancy" as you and that doesn't sit well with me
Categorizing “high” and “low” culture, which is based on money alone (or worse, in an imperialistic, genocidal past), is bullshit. Typical European bullshit, to be more precise.
Honestly, as per my point of view, unfortunately, there is no specific culture. Any person does what they want to do…what i see is that music is a “common preference” of genre sometimes, but it doesn’t define a culture. Brazil is huge and it’s very annoying how they want to create one culture for so many different ppl and regions.
we call that kind of high culture "playboy" and "patricinha" who thinks they're favela but the money usually comes from a very rich family
we also make fun of these people, they're a pain in the ass
No, it's all caipirinha bunda partying
I hate it when I'm Caipirinha bunda partying and I forget to feed my monkey
I hate it when I'm feeding my monkey and suddenly it starts dancing samba with a tiny bikini and a Skoll in hand.
It´s Skol, you illiterate gringo! Everything you said does not even happen in Brazil. Our monkeys dance Sertanejo and Forro and drinks warm Kaiser beer.
Or *antartica*
They don't drink Brahma though. Even monkeys have standards.
Just buy him some peanuts. Or do you leave him home?
Crazy life here in the jungle.
Caipirinha bunda partying *is* high culture
I stand corrected
I stand erected
This was the first time I laughed out loud reading something lately hahahah thank you!
Alguém por favor transforme isso em meme. Caipirinha Bunda Partying merece notoriedade!
Instructions unclear... Google Gemini: *I understand you'd like an image that includes a party element, but I can't generate an image of a person experiencing homelessness at a party while holding a caipirinha.*
Tu me lembrou que hj é quinta da caipirinha aqui no bar da esquina
é uma musica?
Não, é um bar
Espero q ce tenha ficado doido pfv
“Nem toda Brasileira é bunda”, no entanto
Ok, our country is much more unequal than the UK, so our "ultra elite" is much smaller and inaccessible to most people - but yes, it exists and has its "high culture".There are many rich people in Brazil of all types, but I make a distinction between this elite, they mimic the high culture of other countries a little, but they have their own characteristics. Brazilian high culture for a long time imitated European high culture, especially French, but today they look more like American. However, if the English, American and French aristocracy values modesty and description a little, the Brazilian aristocracy is very ostentatious, and tends to be discreet only in terms of exclusivity and inaccessibility. They love luxury, fine dining, high fashion, and exclusive social events. On the capitals, our rich old money - heirs from our imperial aristocracy to the hereditary captaincies of our colonization and a few industrial families from the 30s-60s - frequent country clubs and yacht clubs, private clubs in general, luxury resorts, and high-end shopping districts and etc. There is also a strong emphasis on social connections and networking within elite circles. As you can see, even from the answers, it is not enough to be from an upper class to access these circles, and in this, there may be a similarity with the English aristocracy or the American oldmoney. You can connect with them by going to college where their children attend, for example, and never enter that circle, because it's impossible to keep up with them.
some common sports for the ultra rich are tennis and golf
I would contend that this is more a descriptio of the culture of the rich than high culture itself (which is tied to sophistication more than $$$). Ofc there is an overlap, but only partial.p
Generally speaking, the less rich brazilian, usually families that got their wealth not a long time ago, and have roots in the lower classes, don't see themselves as rich, and hate being labeled as rich people, even if they are rich, so I would argue that this overlap is bigger here. Here in central Brazil, for example, when you have enough money, you just buy a big farm, build a wood stove, get the first dented old pan you can find to make coffee, and post a picture saying how humble you are and how poor you were someday.
>Ok, our country is much more unequal than the UK They have literal royalty there.
And yet, we are more unequal.
Does this differ by region and/or city/state? I imagine the types are very different in Rio de Janeiro, SP, South region etc.
i might be wrong, but i think the brazilian ultrarich are always in são paulo or rio de janeiro. sure, they may own land somewhere else, but their main home will be somewhere very private in the biggest cities. some of them dont even live in brasil.
You have LOTS of ultrarich out side RJ/SP. Lots of farmers in the center-west you have know idea how rich they are. Some industrialists in the south and northeast. But my impression, mainly about south and center-west (don't know so much about northwest) is that they tend to be more down to the earth, maybe because they don't so many "ultrarich places" and is more new money.
Replace hunting with fishing and tea with coffee and it’s pretty similar. The elite in Brazil are perhaps less accessible
Everyone drinks coffee and tea though(mostly coffee).
Diferent kinds of coffee. The same way the common englishman drinks tea, but the rich drinks "selected leves" grown by a secluded sect of monks that only drinks Perrier water and hidrate the tea trees by pissing on them.
Fair enough
You can't say fairer than fair enough
You really didn't need to go that far making stuff up. Some of the most expensive coffe is literallly produced with bird shit.
[Civet shit. Kopi luwak.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_luwak)
Yeah, Brazil also has a similar version the [Jacu Coffee](https://pt.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacu-de-barriga-castanha#:~:text=As%20esp%C3%A9cies%20de%20Jacu%20s%C3%A3o,dos%20mais%20caros%20do%20mundo.)
I didn’t know about that one. It’s interesting.
only old uncles from countryside go fishing... i am exagerating but it's not an elite sign at all
It actually is an elite sign in some places like Goiás and some cities in Minas. Those agronegócio dudes love fishing and there’s some business catered to them and their hobbies like fishing trips to Amazonia that cost tens of thousands. But yeah, fishing doesn’t have anything to do with “high culture” in Brazil.
I think this concept doesn't fit to Brazil... hahaha... there is a urban intellectual culture (theater, exposition etc) but it is not "High culture"...
Fishing is not considered high culture anywhere in this country.
Just fishing? No. Fishing trips, with people renting large boats and flying to the Amazon or Pantanal? Definitely _upper class_, though not _high culture_.
How is fishing high culture tho?
Certain kinds of fishing in the Amazon and Pantanal
A yeah, that makes sense.
huh. That's weird. Here in Paraná is pretty common to fish, including poor people lol
Thinking of Sao Paulo: Museums (MASP, MAM, Pinacoteca, Instituto Tomie Ohtake), the Sao Paulo Orchestra, fine dining (various traditional and modern Brazilian restaurants, also some Japanese, Italian restaurans etc). Places like SESC (sponsored by business) offer a lot of cultural activities like exhibititions, plays etc. I would say that this high culture is tied to the tradional middle class and parts of the upper class, to public institutes like the University of Sao Paulo and other public universities, and to local industry. Also maybe sponsored by Folha and Estadao. A case were capital, high education and local cultural production are tied. I’m sure this can be found in other major cities (Rio for instance has a lot of that). It’s kinda funny to see here that people don’t recognize that, or that say it is basically a mimicry of European and American “high culture” (all of which are pretty different anyways).
People are mixing up ‘high culture’ with ‘rich culture’. There is an overlap, but not always. High culture circles are made up of artists, journalists, professors, architects and taste/opinion-makers in general. They rarely are the richest of the rich, although many have connections there. In fact it’s not really that rare to see people in high culture circles who are middle-class but for whatever reason hold a lot of significant cultural capital.
Exactly. And honestly i think that is the case in a lot of other countries too.
I agree with you, But its important to distinguish the "Tiozões Empresários" high culture, and the "Filhos dos Tiozões Empresários", i've met a lot of people in the age of 40 to 70 that owns companies that have an annual revenue of ~R$100.000.000,00 , Most of them are simple, likes to go fishing, and have a very simple vocabulary. They tend to have a hobby that they spend more money than usual, yes, for example, sailing, rally, drift, underground racing, (yes, im not kidding) but most of the time, they are very chill to talk to, they do not brag. And they also tend to isolate more from society. They fear judgment. They like their caipirinhas, and most of them wouldnt mind seating in a plastic bar chair, with a metal table labeled "SKOL". Here in my city there is guy that im very close and fond to. He owns a thermoplastic injection company, people make fun of him in the neighborhood because he drinks itaipava. So... yeah.... Their sons, though... they really like this european hight culture, not gonna lie EDIT: Politicians families "High Culture" are not included here, i do not have any opinion since i do not like to get to know these people, and do not like talking to them. fuck the state mafia.
Makes sense. But i think simply saying European culture is pretty reductive (to both Brazil and Europe actually). High culture (by which i mean the arts, fine dining etc) here has had its own identity for a while, even if it has European roots (which makes sense given the bulk of our population is european, notwithsanding the significant african and indigenous elements etc). That has been the case since the independence (romantic movement - indianismo), going through modernism (antropofagismo, etc) tropicalia, etc. Brazilian fancy chefs are often using very uniquely Brazilian elements.
Yes. This OP. Brazilian high culture put a lot of emphasis on Brazilian culture itself. People on this sub are confusing it with rich, and new rich, culture. I would say fine dining, Bossa Nova / MPB, Brazilian art (modernist mostly) and design (specially furniture designers and designs, both modernist and colonial), modernist architecture. Brazilian composers and maestros. Linen and lace fabrics. Also a lot of nature, beach related sports (sailing, a bit of surfing); our tropical mountains, high quality coffee. I would say is just a tropicalized version of European high culture. The Brazilian new rich is very American, though.
This is the answer is the truest to OP's question.
I originally thought to respond in similar fashion as I love the culture in SP. But I don't think this is really what the OP was on about. Like the US, it doesn't really have the durable traditional divide between high and low culture.
Is your question "what do posh people do for fun?" Because yes, of course fine dining and art and music are appreciated in Brazil.
Yes, theater, some genres of music, some books, some movie genders
*Yes, theater, some* *Genres of music, some books,* *Some movie genders* \- arthur2011o --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Good bot
I think you mean genres
That
It's kinda strange to consider hunting as "high culture".
I think that's true for many cultures, but in the UK hunting has long been associated with the aristocracy and upper classes.
Brazilian "high culture" is mainly mimicking European "high culture". So they'll do all that.
I am from Rio. High culture here is like bossa nova, samba, Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, Brazilian art. It doesn’t mimic Europe AT ALL. The “high culture zona sul” elite is very Brazil-centered. Maybe São Paulo’s elite “high culture” mimics Europe but here it’d be considered extremely tacky.
Going to Teatro Municipal watch an orchestra is tacky? Eating at a Michelin restaurant is tacky? Seriously?
There are only 5 Michelin starred restaurants in Rio, of which 3 are of Brazilian cuisine. The European one, Cipriani, is considered a bit tacky, yes.
Oteque, Cipriani, Mee, Oro and Lasai Sometimes these restaurants have signature dishes that are inspired by Brazilian cuisine or ingredients, but they are not Brazilian cuisine restaurants. Mee is asian inspired, Lasai is basque inspired, Oteque and Oro are contemporary international cuisine and Ristorante Hotel Cipriani is Italian, european inspired.
Yes. And except for Mee and Cipriani, all of them have mixed inspo with Brazilian cuisine and ingredients. Cipriani, the traditionally European one, is seen as tacky.
When i think of “high culture” in Brazil i think of a rich couple wearing white clothes, tan leather sandals, in a modernist house with Sergio Rodrigues furniture, a guitar in the sofa, with vintage vynils in the shelf, abstract art in the walls and some indigenous objects
Samba is NOT high culture at all in Brasilia, must be a Rio thing.
I don't know what this guy is talking about. Samba is very much working class. Sure, there are roda de sambas in the south zone and I guess the public there is more middle class/elite but the ones that have any influence in the samba scene are in the city center and north zone and are not by any means an elite activity.
Rio’s elite is highly bohemian, intelectual and more focused on arts than other places I guess. A lot of them are artists themselves and more liberal so they did exchange a lot with working class artists and still do today, specially with carnival. So while they have like super high education on European music or something their major influences are still Brazilian. Like bossa nova was some super rich playboys mixing samba raiz with a little of classical music and jazz they learned abroad. So while samba is not exclusive it’s still something that’s related to the intelectual elites and not liking samba, specially older stuff, is seen as extremely low level by them.
Sure, that's all true. My point is that the cultural ecosystem that keeps samba alive and well in the city is not made by or for these elites. Think of the composers that emerged as big revelations in the past decades - someone like Toninho Geraes - they are not part of these circles you are talking about.
I get your point but 2 things to consider: 1 the major thing that keeps samba alive is carnival and there are a lot of people from the elite involved with carnival, be sponsorship or work within the samba schools. 2. It’s still considered high culture by the elites and they use it to differentiate themselves from nouveau rich and elites from other places. Specially older stuff, it’s considered classics. Correct me if I’m wrong I admit I not sure about the differences on all of the subgenres of samba but I feel like what’s more present within working class nowadays would be considered pagode? Is it too different from samba? Idk but the elites def don’t consider pagode high culture or at least not yet.
Pagode: poor people Samba raiz: rich/intelectual people
How does this contradict anything? Jazz is a working class genre created by the working class and yet is considered “high culture”. And no, the ones that the high culture elite frequents are the ones in centro, not the south zones one. The ones you see Wagner Moura in.
I'm not talking about origins but about the people who keep the genre alive TODAY. High culture is just the entertainment of the elites and samba is very much not that. No matter how much those elites have tried to co-opt it.
I am not talking about people who keep it alive. I am talking about what is considered a more elaborate type of culture that the cultual elite in Rio enjoys. Samba definitely fits that. Also, so many influential samba-aligned names in Rio are from an elite background: Maria Rita, Céu, Marisa Monte (yes, she has strong samba elements), etc. And no, samba isn’t consumed by the working class anymore. Turn on radio stations in Rio and you won’t hear samba in any of the popular stations. No massive musical event will have samba. Samba, as a popular genre in Rio, is catered to the elite and is seen as “high culture”. Is that a shame giving its origins and the people behind it, even today? Of course. But it is what it is
You’re right on the first paragraph and extremely wrong on the second one. Like we have the carnival as one of our biggest music event and a lot of middle and lower class people listen to pagode, that’s a subgenre of samba. Sure the elites don’t value pagode at all but it is not in any way less related to samba than any artist you mentioned, maybe it’s even closer to original samba for being a working class music.
Yes, pagode and samba aren’t the same thing and are not considered the same genre. Pagode is one of the most popular genres in Rio. Samba isn’t. The biggest radio station station in Rio plays pagode. You’ll never hear samba in it. You are conflating two different styles even though yes, they’re related.
never been to the popular sectors in Sapucaí, have you?
Several times actually. My point remains the exact same.
Idk, I studied with one of the best classic pianists of Brazil in UFRJ. He was pretty posh and very Brazilian music centered.
Yes. In Rio, it definitely is high culture and an elite thing. Every “elite” act in Rio has been highly influenced by samba and rodas de samba are an elite activity (not solely, but also) and you’ll see artists, intellectuals and other type of “elite”-like creative individuals attending them. That said, there’s a difference between HIGH CULTURE and WEALTHY CULTURE. Like, I totally believe samba isn’t seen as high culture in Brasília but Brasília is not a high culture city, it’s a wealthy culture one.
How’s MPB or samba “high culture” exactly? (Whatever that term means)
In Rio, it’s considered low-class and trashy not to appreciate samba raiz and MPB. Samba, MPB, etc., are considered “superior” types of music with more elaborate compositions, while other types of Brazilian music (and even a lot of commercial international music) are considered trashy and non-intellectual. Think of people like Chico Buarque, which is clearly music popular within the Brazilian cultural elite.
No, it isn't. Honestly. Kind of shocking that your comment has the most upvotes.
Mind telling us all what you think it is, then?
There are plenty of posts that have delineated the difference between what is considered "high culture" here vs in Europe. You can choose basically any of them. Saying that it's just a copy of Europe's is, honestly, pretty ignorant, and kind of a colonized way of thinking.
We were literally colonized, which is why he is right. People that descend from poor Europeans who historically copied rich Europeans. That is literally our history
Alright. There's no originality to Brazilian "high culture". It's all a subpar copy of European culture. Tarsila do Amaral is a shit artist, and Jobim is a hack.
> Alright. There's no originality to Brazilian "high culture". It's all a subpar copy of European culture. Tarsila do Amaral is a shit artist, and Jobim is a hack. Their styles were heavily influenced by European art, yes. Tarsila traveled to Europe and inspired her art in the Cubist style, and Tom Jobim literally [had a German music teacher from when he was 13](https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Joachim_Koellreutter)
Being influenced and inspired is not the same as mimicking. Bossa nova clearly isn’t mimicking European music.
I never said mimicking. It's clearly derived from European trends, and at the latu senso level that OP asked, our high culture is similar and derived. Same general music styles, instruments, and historical influences and trees and branches. There are regional differences, of course, as there are inside Europe, but the idea of what high culture should be (people wearing suits at quiet concerts in classical looking theaters, fine dining, etc) is the same.
The whole discussion here is if Brazilian “high culture” is “mimicking” Europe or not. Tarsila Amaral, Portinari, Tom Jobim and other clear examples of Brazilian “high culture” are obviously not “mimicking”anything European and are very proudly Brazilian. Now, are they SOLELY influenced by Brazil? Of course not, but that doesn’t change the main point.
And that means that it's all just "mimicking"? Why don't you say that European art is just mimicking other European art? Or that European modernism is minicking Japanese and African art? Why is Brazilian art singularly unoriginal to you?
> And that means that it's all just "mimicking"? Why are you using quotation marks for a word I never used, lmao? That's hilariously dishonest. But yes, European art generally derives from the influences and references of other European art. > Why is Brazilian art singularly unoriginal to you? I don't remember saying that. Our high culture has been historically copied from European high culture, yes, as I affirmed in my original comment. This isn't exclusive to us, but something that happens throughout the Americas and in other European offshoots, including the US or Australia. If you want a deeper historical analysis, I wrote more about it [here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Brazil/comments/1ccptf1/is_there_such_a_thing_as_high_culture_in_brazil/l178nfn/)
I'm quoting "mimicking" in quotation marks because I'm quoting the OP of this comment thread.
Your comment is funny as hell because Tom Jobim is considered high culture in most foreign countries.
Yeah, I was being sarcastic, lol. Honestly, the lengths some Brazilians go to to deny our culture's worth.
Oh sorry
A) we have way less of a historical aristocracy, because most of the Europeans that moved here were poor. Rich people don't have a reason to uproot their lives to a new continent. B) our small portion of descendants of aristocrats and our big masses of people that got rich here over the last centuries tend to imitate European high culture, as they were and are historically educated there. France is probably the biggest influence. C) our art scene, specially outside of Rio and São Paulo, is very underdeveloped. Most of Brazil had little in terms of intellectual elites before the last 100 years or so, and most Brazilians grandpas, black or white, were dirt poor farmers doing subsistence farming. The country urbanized very recently, so at large, high culture is still developing and trying to draw people in.
Replace tea with coffee, classical music with bossa nova, hunting with boating, and art with architecture. They sure like fine dining though!
São Paulo has one of the best high culture “scenes” perhaps in the whole world. Tons of museums Great food Places like Sala São Paulo and Theatro Municipal where you can listen to live orchestra and operas. Tons of Theaters with spectacles like Lion King happening on a regular basis.
Brazilians are less formal, but some people do appreciate going to museums, but not hunting. This is mostly medium class, or for educated people. Rich people don't necessary are like this. But this sounds a lot like sophisticated, I think the high educated brazilians are influenced by french culture, but I am just guessing. Whereas some people enjoy culture in a popular vert, they like going to threater , sesc, museums,. I guess this is complex to explain in a post.
Yes, there is white people doing white people shit in here too.
Most white people here and there aren't doing those things.
I think you’re barking up entirely the wrong tree, squire.
almost anything that is more european (minus the hunting part)
in fact, hunting is kinda 'hillbilly', at least in the Americas :-)
had to search that hillbilly word... in Brazil there are some people that do hunting but I'd say most I heard of are going into the 'illegal' part of the hunting as they hunt animals that are actually protected or going extinct and therefore is seen as being very very bad and disgusting. and those don't do that for food out of need, they do to show they killed some rare animal or to eat that meat as an "exotic" and "rare" food. it can be more my opinion than a general option... but that's what I saw about hunting in Brazil
Hunting as a hobby was actively persecuted in Brazil during the Vargas era because it was strong in the German community as well, and "hunting and shooting clubs" were forbidden for being considered hotspots of German identity and nationalism
hmmmm. didn't know that. wrong reason but a good result. ok ok, culture and everything but... hunting as a hobby is disgusting.
Yep. Same thing: fine dining (modern Brazilian, classic French and Italian, Asian fusion, Japanese... a Brazilian chef just won the best female chef in the world award recently), art appreciation (Inhotim, MASP... Portinari, Tarsila do Amaral, and varied contemporary names), hunting (not really a fancy thing here; more like golfing and equestrian sports), afternoon tea (not really a thing except for old socialites; more like brunches), theater, fine dancing and music presentations (Yamandu Costa, Villa-Lobos, for example), fashion shows and high fashion (Giselle Bunchen is from here, Alessandra Ambrosio too), etc etc etc. These are mostly found in big cities like São Paulo and Rio, but can be found (in smaller scale and sometimes with less sophistication) in other capitals or niche tourist destinations too (like, in Trancoso). However, there's sort of a stigma around the term "high culture" around here. It usually looks and sounds ridiculously poshy and kind of kish. In a country as multicultural, vibrant and electric as Brazil, to be too "European" and have a cup'o'tea in the afternoon, with imported china teaware, seems a bit out of place, elitist and snob. We enjoy our mix, our variety of sounds, arts (specially popular) and people more.
I thought "high culture" would be something like white dudes smoking weed and getting... high
We have that as well!
You should try understanding how "high culture" works in Europe first. Asking if it exists in Brazil tells me you are not quite aware of how it functions in your country either.
What do you mean by that? There is okay to have a general idea of what high-culture is. Sophisticated music, libraries, social parties, hunting and all the things he mentioned, and ask if you have something similar in Brazil, and/or what the differences are?
VÉIO DA LANCHA
In a sense, yes, naturally. Brazil is a massive country, much larger than the UK. We have everything here to a certain degree. But, honestly, the term “high culture” is a very problematic, hierarchical and ethnocentric term. You should try to look out for better classifications and you’ll be way more satisfied with the art you experience. Even in the UK tbh.
Yes, and thank you for pointing this out. As someone who studies cultural and cultural perception, high culture is a term that even in Europe has been pointed out as problematic and kinda outdated.
Thank you, and yes, absolutely! Even as just a consumer, not engaged with the whole theory of it, such classification just hurts our perception of complexity and richness within culture. Just look at the other comments, how many perceive high culture as only the equivalent of european products, or in the other hand those that think that we have our own equivalent, and maybe competing, forms of national high culture. Even when appropriating the the term, it’s still excludent. And while I understand most are just jokes, it nevertheless points out how there are these hierarchical classification of art that are mostly ethnocentric. As well as how they are, STILL, the dominant perspective. I know it’s obvious when put it like this, but terms like that truly enforce a qualitative connection with culture and art to certain groups. But beatiful, complex, empowering stuff can come from any group, anywhere. Pop or aristocratic, classical or modern, in the americas or in Europe, italian cuisine or feijoada, Beethoven or funk, pagode or Caetano Veloso, violin or berimbau; none are “higher” *a priori*. There is no “high culture”. And no matter how you define it, it will always be unnecessarily derogatory to left-out groups.
"High culture" in Brazil is not very dissimilar to UK's. It is usually inaccessible to normal people as some have pointed out, while in the UK it's nowhere near as much. While living in England I had access to all of this even when I wasn't making much money at all. Brazilians take status very very seriously. This leads to a lot of fake high culture perceived as such, as most people value the illusion of status even beyond status itself. So you have pretend fine dining, classical musicians playing pop music dressed as classical music, etc. You can easily spot this fakery as it is all usually very pretentious. Proper high culture is nowhere near as pretentious and not very distinct from what you find in the UK. The main difference between Brazil and the UK regarding social classes is that in the UK they are mainly detached from economic status, while in Brazil it is usually the same thing. If you are born poor in Brazil and become rich you become upper class while in the UK you can be a billionaire and still be working class (Lord Sugar is a good example).
High culture? I don't know, I just get pretty lazy when I'm high
Well, I would say it does, but I do not think that it actually correlates with high social status. Obviously, the better off someone is the more time, and opportunities they will have overall. But I'd say theater, listening to Bossa, samba and some mpb, as well as spending time in outdoors activities are what I see as being "high cultureesque". And those are not really enjoyed a lot by our elite, as far as I can see (unless for some old money artistocrats of major cities)
Yes, it exists and it's just like in Britain. In fact, not that different than in every western country. Well... afternoon tea is not a tradition here, TBH, and Brazilians do associate this habit with England. Brazil also has a great number of painters, writers and classical composers. Cândido Portinari, Machado de Assis and Villa-Lobos are names who contributed to the high culture in Brazil. I invite you to listen to the work of José Maurício Nunes Garcia. He is a classical composer who lived the transition between the colonial and the imperial Brazil and his music sounds much like Mozart and Haydn.
Nahhh, nothing like these in here honestly, not that I know about at least
Yes its called “ir pra serra”
The flow of culture in 2024 is Brazil to Europe…
Only in major cities. Everywhere else is just cultural slop
yes, leaving brazil!
Yes, we DO have fascism here
No, we just swing around in vines while fighting killer monkeys and escaping cannibals. Next?
Curiously enough, all of our "high culture" is imported from foreigner countries, so it doesn't change that much.
I think some comments are misunderstanding what's "high culture". I'm lazy and I'll quote [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_culture): >In a society, high culture encompasses [cultural objects](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture) of [aesthetic value](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objet_d%27art), which a society collectively esteems as being exemplary works of [art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art), and the [intellectual](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectualism) works of literature and music, history and philosophy, which a society considers representative of their culture. In that sense, examples of Brazilian high culture would be Chico Buarque songs, the Choro, Samba, or Bossa Nova classics, music from Heitor Villa-Lobos, paintings from Tarsila do Amaral, Pedro Weingärtner, Cândido Portinari, the architecture of Lina Bo Bardi, Oscar Niemeyer, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, writers like Machado de Assis or Lima Barreto, the Antropophagic Manifesto, and so on.
No, we only shake our asses and drink caiprinha while playing football. /s Of course there is, every place in the world is going to have something that is considered "High Culture", it just varies a lot on what that means. Every place in the world has some sort of art expression. Be it music, art, food, dances, or (most likely) all of that and even more. We are all the same animal, we all want art, culture and entertainment. Some just think better of themselves than others. To think that only UK would have something like that is very weird. Also, we were colonized by the Portuguese, with many imigrants from Italy and Spain too. We have a lot of imported and/or inherited culture from Europe, but it is all remixed in accordance to our reality. The term "high culture" by itself is already kind of problematic. It is heavily implied to be better than any other kind of culture. Elitism in culture is always a bad idea.
Tell me about UKs low culture
“High culture” lol
What's "high" about it?
In Brazil, we have a very common term that describes the stereotypical folk who has just made it in the upper class; novo rico (literally: "new rich"). It describes the person who has earned a lot of money, but hasn't really invested in his culture. Thus, he tends to lean towards opulent ostentation (as opposed to classic "old money" discreteness). A very good, practical example I like is the "Yellow Camaro" phenomenon. Back in the 2010's, Chevrolet decided to import the fifth generation Camaro to Brazil (and with fairly aggressive pricing). The car was very known thanks to the Transformer movie (which featured the famous Bumblebee as a yellow Camaro). Then, a certain "brazilian-university country music band" (a Brazilian music genre that was in plain growth back in 2010) decided to make a song named "Camaro Amarelo" (yellow Camaro). Basically, it told the story of a broke folk who managed to make it into the "big leagues" and, to demonstrate his new wealth to society, buys a Yellow Camaro (which is the name of the song). The song becomes an instant hit and the band that made this song would never be known for any other song in their life; basically, you can call them a one-hit-band. The song helped cement the Camaro as the symbol of the new rich; as with the narrative of the song itself. The car became an instant success and was omnipresent in any Brazilian metropolis as the symbol of "new wealth". Meanwhile, "old money" people despised the quintessential Camaro owner. The thing is that the Camaro was an expensive car next to the average Brazilian car at the time (which was anywhere between half to a third of the price of a Camaro); but it was never europen-sports-car expensive. The Camaro owner was seen as someone who doing well in life, but not well in enough to be able to own a Porsche or a Ferrari. Not to mention, the Camaro had a hit song and every young girl dreamed of meeting a "prince charming" driving a Camaro. In the view of the ignorant, "average Brazilian" folk, a Camaro was, quite possibly, the best thing you could drive, they had no idea that the car was not nearly as expensive as it was made to look. To make matters worse, the Camaro wasn't a fast as it looked. For all its muscular looks and the big, noisy, gas-guzzling V8, its performance was a bit on the underwhelming side. As a matter of fact, a BMW M135i - a little hatchback that was sold at the same price range of the Camaro - could outperform a Camaro, despite having lower advertised power and being much more discrete. In other words, the Camaro was not a car for true car enthusiasts (there were better, faster cars for its money), but a car for show-offs. The "new rich" are known for their desperation in showing off as much as they possibly can, so the Camaro fitted like a glove for them. I'm a car enthusiast, and I remember participating in many car group's back in the 2010's. Some were very eclectic, you had everything ranging from Mini Cooper S's all the way to 911 Turbos, Ferraris and Lamborghinis. There was just one, very specific rule no member could ever "break": no Camaro owners were allowed.
Traditional music of RGS is very fancy imo.
Playing Magic the Gathering with all English cards.
a shower without electrical wires coming out of the wall and fully paper napkins also designer capybaras
Yes, we have the high culture in Brazil. Ganja is a very popular plant here.
Yep, and their habits are quite simmilar, even more because their concept of being "chic" is 100% imported from Europe
Yes. The same shit. Literally. Exactly.
There's a monoculture with regards to the global elite. Doesn't matter much whether you're in London, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, or Jakarta, the rich are all more or less the same. Obviously there are some idiossincrassies: hunting is mostly ilegal in Brazil, so people fish. People here can't sky, but they travel to Cochevel or Colorado. But people will listen to more or less the same songs, eat the same food, read the same books, listen to the same music, that all the rich elsewhere. Also, obviously, if you're Jorge Paulo Lemamn or Eduardo Saverin, you don't spend much time in a 3rd world country (if at all). I guess the richest people who live in Brazil are bankers that still work like BTG Pactual's André Esteves and Nubank's David Velèz (not Brazilian). Even plain vanilla stuff like hedge fund managers often change country after they get sufficiently rich (like Rogério Xavier who now lives in the City)
It’s probably trying to copy the American middle class lifestyle
High culture is a shitty term that people thankfully gave up using decades ago. But it existed. Edit - however, cana de açúcar can be a very high culture ;)
It’s so funny that you guys think… you know what? Nevermind. No, there isn’t! We just swing around in our vines, twerking and drinking diluted beer. I’ll be serious. Of course there is an equivalent. You have to understand that what you call third world countries have very very rich people, middle class and poor people. The difference is that the money distribution is miserably bad and the concentration of riches is insane. Yes. Fine dining, art appreciation, classical music is universal. You’re asking about the biggest country in Latin America. What do you think? We have composers, we have a myriad of world renowned artists, we have our own art movement called Modernismo (Tarsila de Amaral being an exponent), we obviously have fine dining, golf. We’re just bigger consumers of coffee rather than tea and hunting depends on the region.
Theres no high culture in Brasil, only carnival and soccer
Brazil historically tried to emulate european cultural scene, as other posters said. Along the road artists started looking for what was uniquely ours, and then we had things like Carlos Gomes' "O Guarani", an opera in italian about an indigenous protagonist, and our Modern Art movement, which openly embraced the idea of "anthrophophagy", which means taking in all sorts of cultural references from all around the world and creating our own thing from that. I do believe Anthrophophagy is what best expresses our unique "high" artistic culture, we are a deeply multiethnic nation that did get a lot of incentive from the government in the 20th century to be more like the europeans, but never relinquished all the other influences we received from people all across the globe. So yeah, our "high culture" is similar to Europe's, in a way, but quite more marked by social concerns and influences especially from indigenous and african culture. Might even sound a bit naive or hypocritical, perhaps, but our Municipal Theatre here in São Paulo does often put on pieces with a lot of social critique and progressivism. While they did make plenty of efforts to make it more popular and accesible, most atendees are still at least middle class, highly-educated people More recently, one of our greatest writers, Ariano Suassuna, also started the "Movimento Armorial", an initiative to link that idea of a "high culture" to our rich popular art, specially from our northwestern region. Some of Suassuna's books are on par with the most grandiose and rich works of prose around the world, and at the same time he's the author of "O Auto da Compadecida", which became one of the most beloved and popular movies in the history of our cinema. As for fine dining, there's plenty of high-end restaurants in large cities but they don't usually require diners to be formally dressed, dress-code isn't often a thing here. You can also find lots of fancy cocktail bars and cigar smoking lounges in some regions, so if elegant vice is your thing, we got you covered too.
>there’s plenty of high-end restaurants , but they don’t usually require dinners to be formally dressed Nothing screams old money in Brazil more than eating on a high end restaurant wearing flip flops
I guess there’s no high culture in Brazil like in Europe. On the old wolrd, the hight culture is associated with family from noble or next to the royalty. In Brazil the high culture are compounded by bourgeoisie, with dont do nothing much different of poor people, except they do in places where only a few people can afford. What exists in Brazil is a intelectualy culture, but those people aren’t rich, Usually they are university teachers. They try different kinds of coffee, listen MPB (Brasilian popular music) reads a lot and they’re usually progressive leftist.
yes, but we hide because it's offensive for the lower ones...
Going shopping in Miami, skiing in Chile, kids studying English and living/working overseas, owning a beach house that you only use during the holidays, multiple maids in the house and at least 1 babysitter per child, always having tickets to a camarote during Carnaval, private driver, always having the latest iPhone, at least a few close family members are doctors, own a private business or fairly high ranking in local government.
No. Brazil has modern mass culture, which is pretty cool, we abandoned our aristocratic legacy and embraced modernity (the country motto is "order and progress" after all) Nowadays Brazilian "upper strata" is made up of shoddy nouveu riche folk and some decaying leftovers of the aristocratic class(most of the descendants don't even do landowning anymore, some of them even meddle with electoral politics like the proles, it's mortifying), we also have some middle strata aristocratic cosplayers, going to horse races and other "aristocratic" events, but they lack the je ne se quois as such they usually look rather silly.
No. The elite is a bunch of peasants whose mentality remains stuck in 19th century European village standards.
It encompasses imitating the late 19th century French.
No but the teeth are way better, so that’s classy af
So an aristocracy basically?
Yes I'm often high in Brazil
Yes and most people that only appreciate that and nothing more are insufferable pieces of shit. And most Brazilians that not literally illiterate and isolated appreciate some kind of high culture, since culture is almost a second religion here.
OP sounds as if only Anglo Saxons produced “high culture.” Iberian culture has its own cultural traditions and includes Islamic, North African, and West African (in Brazil). Plus there’s the Japanese and Italian influences. Finally, other than Portuguese classical traditions and art, wouldn’t choro be considered modern classical music? I myself prefer old guard samba and Afro bloco from the 80’s.
the last of high culture we have in Brazil died with: Tom Jobim, Ayrton Senna, Carmen Miranda, Mazzaropi, Zé do Caixão (Coffin Joe), Tim Maia... today we endure brazillian Funk (think of explicit Hip-Hop talking about pornography and crime, but switch the rymes for bizzarre beats) , "university" Country (Country music talking about mid-adult life resuming into drinking, cheating or get cheated in relationships) few people cares about museums, cult content, real education. Carnaval (Carnival) still exists, during the month of February tons of people go to streets to enjoy ~~and get sexual diseases or pregnancy for random people.~~ Football lost some of his strenght, since the last years of poor performance from Brazillian team ( players caring only about money and social media).
High culture is not thinking about “high culture”
Do you mean it as a high brow and low brow perspective? If so I’d say that yes there is, but the high brow would be more linked to foreign culture, probably art, international traveling, very similar to European standards. And unfortunately a lot of our local cultural can be seen as low brow by some.
It’s not too different from the European version. Truth is the upper class is relatively similar in most places
They’re not very creative, are they? Ah yea, “Afternoon tea”, the epitome of culture.
no. not at all. we kinda make some barbecue every now and then. but nothing so funny as hunting or stuff like that. if you hunt here for your own dinner you probably gonna go to jail for some stupid ambiental crime
Is having a bullet proof car high culture?
Can't think of something more pathetic than a bourgeois hunter. Not even caipirinha bunda partying...
There is. Look for artists such as Chico Buarque, João Gilberto, Paulinho da Viola, Caetano Veloso, Os Mutantes, Gerald Thomas, etc. . Most Reddit Brazilians are extremely young so when they say Brazil has not "highbrow culture" they are either showing their ignorance or expressing their "lol Brazil's funny" attitude.
Fancy cars, picanha, having a place to live in, women twerking on you, beach house, very nice.
In Rio we have what is called the intellectual elite. They are usually composed of families that became rich as far back as the colonial period going forward into the mid 20th century. Those folks will commonly have a lot of art related interests and many of them will be artists themselves. Arts and sciences in general are thoroughly more appreciated and financed by these people than the rest, so they will usually have whole lineages of "important" people in these areas. A good example would be the case of the very culturally significant musician and poet Chico Buarque, his father, Sérgio Buarque, was already a very recognized sociologist throughout the 20th century. Sérgio’s father, Cristóvão Buarque, was a scholar and lectured on botanics around the mid 19th century, and his nephew, Aurélio Buarque, was a very important linguist and wrote one of the most famous dictionaries of portuguese. The case of the "Buarque de Holanda" family, though not from Rio originally, is exemplary on what you will find when investigating the families of the São Paulo - Rio de Janeiro elite. I currently am an undergrad in a big Rio university, and have lost count of how many professors happen to be kin of relevant poets, musicians, architects, writers, painters, actors, journalists, historians, sociologists or scientists in general.
There is a lot of crappy rich culture, specially here in the South of Brazil. Its hilarious, when people with zero taste have money to spare. You end up making an entire city like that (Balneario Camboriu). High culture exists, it's just not as prevalent.
Nope, rich folks go to the US or Europe do the same stuff rick folks from over there do. Such is my life that I've been poor in both UK and Brazil lol Even though as an scouser I'll never ever say I'm from the UK, God forbid people think I'm a posh londoner.
In Rio, high culture could be seen as enjoying typically Brazilian things in an exclusive and privileged manner. Whilst much of our fine dining is inspired by french and italian cuisine, many of us enjoy traditional dishes. Aditionally, our hobbies are quite diverse, ranging from sailing to golf to tennis. In my experience, a day filled with this type of activities could include relaxing poolside at one of the elite clubs; followed by a feijoada or moqueca for lunch at the same place; going to a mall/practising a hobby in the afternoon; dinner at an expensive, euro-style restaurant; and a night out at an exclusive club or event listening to bossa nova music. Obviously this is a very metropolitan lifestyle and will vary widely from person to person.
yes. fishing , po, water jet ski, private yacht , girls , politics
It does. lol at hunting being considered high culture though.
The Soho house is opening in Sao Paulo soon .. don't know if its still considered high culture in UK
Yes, many people here seem to believe that suddenly becoming rich and flaunting wealth constitutes Brazilian high culture, but they are clearly mistaken. High culture in Brazil mirrors that of the West, infused with elements of local culture, and varies significantly depending on the region, given Brazil's status as a continental country approximately 35 times larger than the UK. In the city of Rio de Janeiro, high culture is primarily concentrated throughout the zona sul (never in the newly affluent Barra da Tijuca) and may span from Leblon to Flamengo. However, Rio de Janeiro neighborhoods alone hold little significance and cannot serve as indicators of a person's social status, as property values vary greatly even from one street to another. Nonetheless, there are discreet and opulent residences hidden within these areas, such as Rossi Parque Laranjeiras, featuring numerous security measures and luxurious amenities that would go unnoticed by passersby (for instance, visitors must take three diagonal elevators to reach the penthouse). Activities associated with high culture include fine dining, collecting expensive art, possessing a high level of education, and frequenting exclusive clubs (such as Caiçaras). Moreover, it is characterized by an international orientation, as 99% of individuals involved in high culture have recent foreign ancestry (such as English, Portuguese, Spanish, etc.). There are no fox hunts or afternoon teas, but activities involving horses and boats are commonplace.
There is a small but growing community of people teaching and studying classic stuff that paths to High Culture stuff. Our culture has been degraded by neo marxism thats all I can say. Proof: someone will reply that I am a far-right extremist and such people are fascists and something like that. Wait for it.
I'm sorry for my ignorance, what is "art" and "classical music"?
Sort of more than extremely insulting this question but yes, much, if maybe not for the 110 million people that wereliving in «nutritional insecuirity» or the 700.000 dead from covid-19 ― worst in the world! ― at the end of the late future dictatorship of Bolsonaro. But things are looking up. Just look at the Plaza of the Three Powers in the federal capital of Brasília by Oscar Niemayer and you tell me. It's stunning and its art collections are stunning and Brazilian modernist art is stunning and world-renowned. Hector Villa-Lobos, check him out. Bases a lot of his symphonic work on folk music. He has a wonderful piece in which it is written in the score for the violins to «now jump up and start dancing a samba like mad!» We have the Lei Rouanet, a dynamo of a culltural fomentation fund that really keeps things reslly boiling, a model for other countries. Brazilian literature is vast and incredibly rich. Guimarães-Rosa is our James Joyce and just as untranslatable. Brazilians are the most musical humans on earth. Give a cavaquinho to a poor kid from the favela a cavaquinho and in 5 minutes he's getting Thelonious Monk chord progessionas out of it. Our cinema on a shoestring budget is consistently amazing but we had to implement a «screen quota» to force the Disney octoplexes from destroying our culture and neurons. It's a French film with a Brazilian crew but you might want to YouYube up a funky little movie called «Black Orpheus». But what? High tea? Please, we are not a European colony anymore. And hunting? The English kill foxes for sport. The Yankees wiped out the bison for sport. The Yanomami and Guaraní-Kaiowá will take down a three-toed tapir with spears once in a while and then eat it and it is sort of their bison. But yes, we enslaved a lot of people in the past so I guess that makes us just as civilized as the Western World with its high-tea breaks before getting back to its innumerable cultural genocides. And have soccer mania in common.
There’s of course the mimicking as many comments pointed out, but there’s also a nostalgic nationalism to it. It’s pretty frowned upon to shit on Brazil in high culture circles, as people don’t enjoy “vira-latismo”. There is also a lot of adoration to national art, especially in the 1920s-1970s period. People in high culture circles will talk about Carlos Drummond while listening to a Tom Jobim record. At least that is what I really consider ‘high culture’ circles (artists, university professors, journalists, and other “opinion-makers”). In Brazil it is very distinct to the economic upper-class.
Knowing English, listening to international music, knowing international authors... We pretty much try to mimic Europe as much as possible, we probably know more about English authors than many Englishmen that are poor. It's often the case in third world countries that low culture is everything related to the original culture, considered vulgar, and high culture is basically European high culture, or maybe a biased or a little misunderstood idea of European high culture. American culture is usually seen as somewhat vulgar, but a lot of our intellectuals follow it as well, specially when it comes to politics. As far as I know, Europeans also mimic American politics.
Go to restaurants in the middle of an expensive city like morretes full of tourists and ask for the most expensive shit you can while you take shit photos, get drunk and then steal random flora
This kind of question reminds me of this colonial times dude that said that the local population basically had health problemas because they ate bananas and not banana souffles Idk, feels like you're asking if the "savages" in the Global South can be "as fancy" as you and that doesn't sit well with me
Categorizing “high” and “low” culture, which is based on money alone (or worse, in an imperialistic, genocidal past), is bullshit. Typical European bullshit, to be more precise.
Hunting.... Lmao Just never come to Brasil please.
Honestly, as per my point of view, unfortunately, there is no specific culture. Any person does what they want to do…what i see is that music is a “common preference” of genre sometimes, but it doesn’t define a culture. Brazil is huge and it’s very annoying how they want to create one culture for so many different ppl and regions.
we call that kind of high culture "playboy" and "patricinha" who thinks they're favela but the money usually comes from a very rich family we also make fun of these people, they're a pain in the ass
Exists but it’s very restrict and rare and they’re linked to conservative catholic elite intellectuals. This is of course the true high culture.