City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 1977 Santana: Middle Class Families in Sao Paulo, Brazil Elizabeth Riggs Hansen The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1851 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. 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Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 77-13,660 HANSEN, Elizabeth Riggs, 1942- _ SANTANA: MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES IN SAG PAULO, BRAZIL. City University of New York, Ph.D., 1977 Anthropology, cultural Xerox University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 © 1976 ELIZABETH RIGGS HANSEN ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. SANTANA: MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES IN SAC PAULO, BRAZIL by Elizabeth R. Hansen A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York. 1976 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Anthropology in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Professor Jane Schneider Chairman of Dissertation Committee 'date Professor Sydel Silverman Executive Officer, Department of Anthropology Supervisory Committee Professor Eric R. Wolf Professor Daniel Gross Professor Anthrony Leeds The City University of New York Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. i Figure 1. Sao Paulo, Brazil. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. i i Figure 2. Urban Sao Pauio. SAO \ & BERNARDO CUBATAO SANTOSl SOURCE: PUB (1968:1:28) Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Middle income people in Latin American countries have scarcely been accorded the attention that tribes, peasants and the urban poor have received from social scientists. Insofar as any attention at all has been paid to these people, Latin American "middle classes" have been either unrealistically glorified or despised by modernization theorists and their critics. Middle income people have remained invisible behind a miasma of theore­ tical expectations on the behavior of "middle classes." This may be partly the result of the operational difficul­ ty of practising traditional anthropological methods in urban middle income settings, where there are sturdy walls to keep out intruders, including Ph.D. candidates; it may also result from the definitional difficulties which surround the concepts of "class" and "middle class." This thesis aims at understanding the structural constraints which have determined the lives of middle income Brazilians in Sao Paulo city, as well as at showing one process of middle class formation. I have been extraordinarily fortunate in the writing of this thesis for having the advice, criticism and support of Drs. Jane Schneider, Eric Wolf, Daniel Gross, Anthony Leeds and Edward Hansen. These have saved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. me from major theoretical faults, much clumsy and impre­ cise writing and moments of deep despair of ever finishing* Towards the end of writing I received critical advice and support from Delmos Jones and Jaquetta Burnet. My gratitude to all of these is immeasurable. 1 am also grateful to Leonard Foote, who prepared the maps, genea­ logies and many of the charts for the thesis. In Brazil, I often received offers of help, which because of the press of time, I could not follow up. The personnel at EMURB and at the Municipal Archives, for in­ stance, were infallibly gracious and forthright in their interest in my work. Other people offered warmth, hos­ pitality and the different kinds of companionship which make fieldwork a complex and exciting business. Many of these people would prefer to remain anonymous, but my gratitude and affection is no less for not being able to name them individually. Most of all, however, I am indebted to the indi­ viduals and families in Santana, who thought their story was important and who were willing to tell it to me and urge their friends to do so as well. Categorically, this work could not have been done had not one person taken me under her wing and given me the opportunity to get inside people's houses and form a network for myself. All of the people interviewed were extremely gracious and generous about my queries--as well as patient and humo­ rous over my not infrequent gaffes. It is thanks to their Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 generosity that we may here attempt to demystify the concept of '’middle class" and see real people. It would have been foolish to attempt to disguise Santana under a pseudonym. All names of individuals in the thesis, however, are pseudonyms, and wherever possible, the individuals described are composite distill­ ates of many interviews with many people. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................... 3 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ............................ 7 Chapter I. INTRODUCTION............................... 9 II. POLITICAL STAGES IN TWENTIETH CENTURY BRAZIL ................................... 59 III. SANTANA: FROM THE TOP OF THE HILL .... 132 IV. SANTANA: FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE HILL . 184 V. "NOSSA CLASSE MEDIA SOFRIDA": THE OUTLINES OF A CONSCIOUSNESS OF MIDDLE CLASS ........................................250 VI. CONCLUSIONS: “MIDDLE CLASSES" AND “MIDDLE SECTORS" ..................................... 303 Appendix I. Sub-districts of Sao Paulo, ranked accor­ ding to population, area, income, pro­ fessions and number of students ........... 318 II. Currency Conversion Table ........ 322 III. Household composition, material assets and sources thereof of Santana families . 323 IV. Supplements to Chapter I V .................. 329 V. Supplements to Chapter V ....................333 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................ 349 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS F igure 1. Sao Paulo, B r a z i l ............................. i 2. Urban Sao P a u l o ...................... ii 3. Map of greater Sao Paulo ............. 36 4. Center of Santana .................... 38 5. Income distribution in Sao Paulo districts . 43 6. Nuclei of 17th century Sao P a u l o ........... 45 7. Population of Santana from 1765 to 1825 . • 47 8. Population growth in center city neighborhoods of Sao Paulo and Nossa Senhora do o' in the Northern Zone of Sao P a u l o ................. 48 9. Monthly family income distribution in Santana, 1968 prices ....... ......... 52 10. Monthly family income distribution in Sao Paulo, 1968 p r i c e s ...................... 52 11. The percentages