Basic comparison between the three countries

Homosexual Heterosexual

Two generic categories will establish the basic comparative terms between the six cities and three
countries. They are established in terms of sexual orientation: “Homosexual” and “Heterosexual.
Interviews and questionnaires will be structured from these initial categories.

White Black

The “Homosexual” and “Heterosexual” categories will be further divided in “race/color” and
gender terms. The common axis related to “race/color” will be established by the initial division
“White/Black”. In each context, the native categories have to be incorporated to the research, being
a task of researchers to abstract them from the context, to allow comparative effort of interpretation
and analysis. On the other hand, the ethnic/fen typical/racial multiplicity in each context will require
the incorporation of categories which are initially irreducible in each situation: for example, the
notion of “Hispanic”, crucial to understand the ethnic/racial dynamics in USA, is meaningless in
Brazilian and South African contexts; the same occurs with “Pardo” and “Moreno” notions, which
are meaningful in Brazil, but senseless in USA and South Africa. To overcome this problem implies:
1. the definition of a specific quota of interviews and questionnaires to control the local
singularities, and 2. a refolded attention during ethnographic research. Local singularities may not
be faced as an obstacle to develop comparative studies, but as a challenge to be overcome in
research development.

Male Female

1. Set of interviews and questionnaires for each city

1.1. In-depth interviews

eight in-depth interviews in each city previously defined

heterosexual
black 2 – 1 male and 1 female
white 2 – 1 male and 1 female

homosexual
black 2 – 1 male and 1 female
white 2 – 1 male and 1 female

+ four open interviews (2 homo and 2 hetero) in function of local singularities for ethnic/”racial”
classifications

1.2. Controlling questionnaires

heterosexual (8)
black 4 – 2 male and 2 female
white 4 – 2 male and 2 female

homosexual (8)
black 4 – 2 male and 2 female
white 4 – 2 male and 2 female

+ eight open questionnaires (4 homo and 4 hetero) adapted to local singularities for ethnic/”racial”
classifications

2. Ethnography

Certainly, the ethnographic fieldwork is one of the main challenges in this research project. Even
though interviews and questionnaires also insert local singularities as their object, in ethnographic
research they will gain density. Comparative analysis may be possible only through intense
communication and dialog between researchers responsible for fieldwork in each city. Thus,
ethnographic research is divided in the following steps:
(a) a previous, “savage”, ethnography that may allow researchers to choose the privileged fields for
investigation in each city; the choice must be a common decision of researchers responsible for
ethnography in each city; this step should last around eight weeks;
(b) main ethnographic research: every researcher must begin fieldwork at the same time in each city
(around six months are foreseen for that); fieldwork diaries are fundamental for this step, in which
in-depth interviews and an amount of questionnaires will also take place (interviews will be
possible to be accomplished since there is an intense contact with observed universe);
(c) the last four months are left for data systematization and comparative analysis.

United States – Basic categories

White Hispanic African-American Asian-American

Certainly, these four categories do not embrace the whole North-American classificatory universe
and, surely, meaningful differences may be found in each city. Research must be developed
attempting to observe and embrace the local singularities, as much as to accomplish the
comparative purpose of investigation.

South Africa – Basic categories

White Black Coloured Asian

These are inherited categories from apartheid period that certainly have been vividly transformed
through the last years. Thus, the categories “White”, formerly defined as “European”, may be
divided as “English speakers” and “Afrikans speakers”, and the “Black” category, formerly defined
as “Natives”, “Bantus” or “Indigenous”, may appear either as a homogenic category or divided by
ethnic or linguistic categories. “Coloureds” and “Asians” – both inherited categories from
apartheid period as those above quoted – may be included sometimes in “Black” category, as claim
some political groups nowadays. Nevertheless, the research will privilege the native uses of fen
typical/”racial” categories, respecting each city dynamics of use. The researchers must attempt to
abstract and compare the native categories
 Brazil – Basic categories

White Black Mulatto Indigenous Japanese

The above categories may hardly embrace the whole reality in cities such as Rio de Janeiro and São
Paulo. Even a powerful Black political movement intends to include all the “Mulattos” in the
“Black” category, socially and institutionally there is a multiplicity of categories that invades the
individual’s everyday life. In Brazilian Census, for example, individual must choose one of the
following “color/racial” categories: “White”, “Black”, “Pardo”, “Indigenous” or “Yellow”, while in
social dynamics the use of terms such as “Moreno”, “Mulato”, “Caboclo” and others, is very often.
In the same way, in São Paulo there is an expressive “Yellow” contingent which is called and self-
defined according to its national origins, as “Japanese” (it is important to emphasize that São Paulo
has a significant and increasing contingent of other Asian groups, mainly Korean and Chinese
ones).