Written for a general audience, this book covers Brazilian history from the pre-colonial period to the present. It places special emphasis on the daily lives of women, as well as men, on popular culture, including soccer, movies, television and music. I found the information on the struggle to save the Amazon Rainforest, on the yearly Carnival celebration, and on the relationship of politics to popular culture especially fascinating.

I recommend the book to a wide audience, and also think it would be appropriate for high school and college classes.

An outstanding history of the late -1960s surrealist-hippie rock movement known as "tropicalia." Although tons has already been written about Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil and the other heroes of the tropicalia scene in the Brazilian press and academia, it's been pretty slim pickings in the English-speaking world... up until now, that is! Christopher Dunn, who co-edited "Brazilian Popular Music & Globalization," skillfully combines hard academic research with a relatively light, conversational prose. This is dense yet captivating material, as Dunn deftly explores the historical and philosophical connections to tropicalia -- an art movement that was originally conceived as cross-genre and multi-media -- and previous Brazilian movements such as modernismo, which was Brazil's homegrown 1920s variant of the "futurist" philosophy that swept through Europe in the early 20th Century. Dunn also deftly tells the story of tropicalia's explosive growth as a subversive, psychedelic musical genre, and the harsh political repression it was met with by the dictatorship which held power from 1964 to 1985. This is a vital book, of interest to the many newfound fans of this wild musical style, or to art historians tracking the worldwide path of dada-ism and surrealist art. Highly recommended.

Is the best book about colonyzation..... Don't hasve any book lije that..... I need one........ Original if is possible.. I pay One milion of dollars if necessary (for the first edition.

I am a primary level teacher in a private school. Our curriculum is based on a program from California which usesthematic units and a project approach to allow the students to explore thier own interests while learning within the theme. Our themes are based on particular time frames in history, and every two weeks we "visit" a different area of the world within our current time frame. The Pre-Primary teacher and I have found this book to be a valuable resource for our curriculum. In this book we have found information on holidays and festivals, games and sports, foods, fashion, performing arts, music, visual arts and so much more! I have used this book to help me find information to present to the students, as well as to find information the children needed for their project presentations. And it is all listed by culture, so everything is easy to find. The teachers of Bright Ideas School really like this book! Thank you

Composed of myriad primary sources, Conrad prefaces each document with a description, date and summary of the following text. Organized topically and then chronologically within each section, the format perfectly suits the researcher. Interestingly, (for my purposes) the text contains numerous accounts of quilombos in Palmares, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and others. The documents date from 1550 (approx.) through the final proclamation ending slavery in Brazil in 1888. Outstanding research tool, as well as an interesting read for those wishing to learn, first hand, about slavery in Brazil.

A very "user friendly" book. I recommend it for adoptive parents, teachers, and anyone interested in Brazilian culture or Christmas around the world. Includes a brief history of Brazil appropriate for kids, great color photos, recipes, crafts, and detailed descriptions of celebrations before during and after Christmas in various parts of the country.

If you are looking for an excellent book on the Candomble Orixa Worship of Brazil, then this is the classic. The book as the title states is of the power of the Brazilian Priestesses of the orixas, also known as orisha. Mai De Santos, or Priestesses of Orixas are as powerful, and as highly respected as the Babalawos of the Ifa and Babalorichas of Lucumi. I highly recomend this to all Voodoo Mambos, Santeria Santeras, and all Woman of the world, who believe in the power of Woman.

From a man's point of view this is a brilliant and inspiring work, and should be read buy all who honor the Ancient African Gods.

I worked as a research assistant under the late Anna Luiza in the early ninety-nineties, and one of my first chores was to revise the Portuguese original of this book, which is the by-product of a (very) throughly reasearch about the role of deforestating in the strategies of capital accumulation of small planters practcising slash-and-burn agriculture in the borders of the Amazon rainforest. Ozorio de Alamida's team simply took down note of _all_ yearly expenses and revenues of the small farmers included in the sample, in order to arrive at the conmclusion that, in the absence of a coherent public policy of funding, the only alternative for such small producers is to buy a forest plot and to deforestate it entirely _in order to resell it as pasture land_ and then to repeat this same move three to four times before eventually managing to settle down in a stable plot of their own. To all those who don't content themselves with sentimental generalizations, but want to have hard (and, I have to admit, dry)actual economic information about what is going on behind an ecological disaster. Due to the fact of Anna Luiza's untimely death in 1994, she is not here to discuss her work, and I wanted to advise all interested in the plights of the Amazon not to pass by this fine work.

Besides being an excellent book, a must for anyone trying to understand Brazil, Bahia and its major institutions and leaders, the book has a curious way of bringing present historical facts and issues as examples for assumptions, concerning the young, or even yet to be, federation of Brazil. Young, yes, because only recently, as the author well states, has such a culturally and environmentally diversified ecosystem, of continental size, set decentralising threshold norms: its Constitution of 1988. The title of the book itself, by bringing about the terms "constitutional engineering", at first gives us the impression it will be all about legal matters. But, soon after we start reading the introduction and its first pages, we are made aware of the novelty it brings about: modern framework assumptions for the design of institutions, republics, federations, governance, and other complex social and ecological issues. Preferred means and ways just do not occur in the world by accident, as fatalistic happenings, typical of fundamental nature - humans have to gather and design their systems, take their risks together, and energise into accelerated learning paths. Yet governance requires a deep assessment of desires of the individuals, of the environmental relations, and also a tailor-made design of a concertation system. The word engineering can be a faithful and precise term for that, for it bring s a sense of proactiveness (anticipation). A vision of the desired present and future, born by the individuals of such an economy should be in the air, in the minds, in the emotions, at all times. Clearing at all times should be the vision such a people would be willing, both subjectively and objectively, to share and support, in their day to day interactive transactions, side by side with the understanding of their weaknesses and good practices.

The author brings about both institutional and non institutional structures that have been thought of and are happening, with some success in Brazil, in the struggle of that people towards a visible participation in the complex global systems of our era. It is fine to feel the multidisciplinary approach in all chapters, refraining the writer to get trapped in often-boring academic legal or economic terms and semantics. I thought that, by being a native Brazilian, a native Bahian, a mixed blood and mixed culture individual, I knew all about this country and its tricks. Wrong was I: since this book brought a good amount of useful knowledge and intriguing new stories. Looking into the future, further research could be advisable, to assess possible ways Brazil, and its still relatively federated states, could further decentralise to start transacting more openly with the world market, further deregulating present international relations, although not losing the valid sense of cohesion. Present trials to participate with South American economies in regional pacts have shown to Brazilian leading government and private entrepreneurs that the international representation as a sole entity (country) reduces efficiency, effectiveness and sometimes harms equity. Of course the European Union is not a paramount example, but surely Brazil could improve the model, that was thought by the "early founders of the American dream", to better adapt that reasonably good concept, to a world of real-time communication. Good luck to readers.

O'Dougherty has captured the spirit of an era when middle-class dreams met rampant inflation head-on. She analyses the role neighborhoods, ethnic origins, government programs, and personal connections played in the widely differing fates of her informants, but time and again theories give way to the fascinating concrete details of Brazilians trying to get ahead, or merely to stay afloat, in the midst of a swollen tide of economic chaos. Implicit in her critique is the notion that the dream itself was highly suspect, and detrimental to the Brazilian ethos, but Hey! Doesn't everyone want to go to Disneyworld?