Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Della C. Henry
The United States boasts of being a “melting pot” of various cultures, races, and
ethnicities, but Brazil is even more thoroughly integrated with evidence of early
miscegenation between the early Europeans, native indigenous peoples and Africans.
The effect of this heterogeneous culture is present in the Portuguese language that is a
binding force spoken in the territory of Brazil that is the same size of the continental U.S.
Where early American settlers lived separately from the Indians, and the Africans
thereafter, early Portuguese settlers not only intermarried, but learned the predominant
settlers found warm climes and peoples, though predominately cannibalistic, and adapted
to both immediately in the sixteenth century. This pattern of mutual benefit and
commiseration spread throughout the region along with the roots of Portuguese but was
overshadowed by the accessible native Tupí language. The next five hundred years show
signs of support for the concepts of language environment, the Ladder of Abstraction and
the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis as the various cultures intermingle and expand indelibly
affecting a unique worldview that is apparent through the Portuguese spoken in Brazil.
John Geipel wrote about these effects rooted in “the folk traditions of three
continents, a dense and by now inextricable weave of influences originating in the Old
World and the New” (Geipel, 1993). In his article, Geipel traces the arrival of the
Portuguese in 1500 and the immediate intermarrying of whites and natives that created
veritable “dynasties”. For example, one legendary founder of São Paulo, today, the
largest city in South America, whose unique gun earned him the nickname Caramurú
(“Firemaker” in Tupí). This man of mixed-race heritage fathered seventy children with
his wife and several “cunhas” (squaws). This family spoke Tupí, what was quickly
Effects of Indigenous Cultures 3
becoming the Lingua Geral (General language) that would take precedence throughout
the land by the seventeenth century when whites were outnumbered by the Tupí speaking
colonization and because of their continued search for Ybipita, the Land of Immortality.
The broad usage of Tupí was influenced greatly by the Jesuit priests who arrived
in 1549 learned the language, organized its grammatical structure and used the simple
language to convert natives to the Catholic faith. Noted historians visiting the tropical
land reported their amazement at the almost universal usage of the Tupí language from
Pombal had received word of the influence and wealth being accumulated by the Jesuit
priests in Brazil. By 1759, he had expelled the Jesuits, banned the Tupí language and
Pombal’s “draconian measures” drove Tupí out, but signs of it linger on in the estimated
barriers of various types, the early settlers assimilated local customs thereby making good
use of what Postman delineates as the four elements of language environment: “people,
their purpose, the rules of communication by which they achieve their purpose, and the
actual talk used in the situation” (cited by Hybels & Weaver, 2007, p. 113). When the
Church arrived, they, too, worked within this framework and effectively spread
Effects of Indigenous Cultures 4
Catholicism, the Tupí language and, by extension, cultural unity among the Brazilian
peoples.
Impressively, Tupí words still account for the majority of the names of flora and fauna in
Brazil. Many, such as cashew, tapioca, piranha, jaguar, toucan, and petunia have gained
international acceptance. Further, Geipel suggests that after Latin and Greek, Tupí is
neotropical species. This seems to play directly into the importance of finding the “right
rung of the ladder for clarity” employed by the early settlers. Their main priority had to
be in securing shelter and food, therefore, it makes sense that this lowest, most concrete
level of the Ladder of Abstraction be firmly established, so firmly, in fact, that many have
From the concrete, one wonders about the effect of the Lingua Geral of Tupí on
the way people viewed the world around them and the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. The Tupí
language itself is described as “simple” and based heavily on the things the Tupí saw and
used in their daily life therefore, their language was anchored in earthly images and rather
limited. Did this make them predispose their choices of interpretation as suggested in the
Hybels & Weaver summary of Sapir-Whorf? Possibly. This account for the duality of
the meaning of abacaxi (pineapple). This Tupí-rooted word signifies both the fruit, and
colloquially, a contentious or complicated situation. When you get a stressful phone call
applicable in establishing the theory itself, but by comparing Brazilian Portuguese with
that of European Portuguese, tell tale signs of its Tupí influence will be made evident.
This topic is inexhaustible and linguistic coincidences abound that further align
with the three aforementioned communication concepts such as the Jesuits’ practice of
intermixing of local legend with stories of the Catholic saints, parallels whose lines are
blurred still today. The richness of the language environment, Ladder of Abstraction and
Sapir-Whorf on this one aspect would no doubt yield even further evidence of the effect
References
Geipel, J., (1993). Brazil’s Unforked Tongue. History Today v.43 pp. 11-15. Retrieved
November 19, 2010 from http://ProQuest.umi.com
Hybels, S. & and Weaver, R.L., (2007). Communicating effectively (8th Ed.). New York:
McGraw-Hill.