IN CONTEMPORARY BRAZIL, race and ethnic symbols are omnipresent in daily language, street life, during Carnival, in advertising, etc. Despite this, there are no signs of racial tensions or hatred as often seen elsewhere. This book explores what the author calls “Brazil’s ethnic and racial idiosyncrasy”, where inter-racial solidarity is often very strong and overlaps with sharp class divisions.

The first chapter describes how race is used in population classifications in Brazil, and in the socioeconomic position of Afro-Brazilians, especially in the state of Bahia. Chapter 2 looks at how the idea of “Africa” has influenced both elite and popular culture throughout the last century. Chapter 3 explores the impact of globalization on urban Afro-Bahian culture and suggests that ethnic revival (the rediscovery of the locally specific) and the development of a world cultural system need not be antithetical. Chapter 4 further develops the argument of the previous chapter through the concrete example of funk dance clubs in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador de Bahia, which are extremely popular among the black urban youth. Chapter 5 compares and contrasts the experiences of low-income black youth in Salvador de Bahia and Amsterdam, to highlight how the concept of race is locally specific. The concluding chapter summarizes the discussions of the previous chapters and locates them in the wider context of the Black Atlantic, a transnational, multilingual and multireligious cultural area.