Brazilian society has had an intriguing history of multiple social factors that have shaped its modern culture. Among those were the European conquests and immigration of the past centuries. Social life, interpersonal relationships, and love have experienced cultural evolution through those times. As a former Portuguese colony, Brazil has been substantially influenced by Portuguese culture. Therefore, the cultures of interpersonal relationships and love in both Portugal and Brazil have a lot in common.
How Does Brazilian Culture Differ from West European and European American Cultures?
The Brazilian culture of social and interpersonal relationships substantially differs from the European and North American cultures of west-European descent. While Europeans and European Americans focus on the values of individualism, independence, autonomy, self-reliance, and solitude in relationships, Brazilians prefer collectivism, interdependence, cooperation, and connectedness.
The favorite Brazilian motto is “Life is only worth living in community.“ They strive to arrange their personal lives around and about others. They tend to maintain a high level of social involvement in group activities. They regard interpersonal relations and interactions as of primary importance in personal life.
Brazilians Appreciate Life and Love as Interpersonal Connections
Brazilians commonly appear as gregarious people. They tend to love company. They are eager to mingle in groups and try to avoid loneliness. They prefer to live in a crowded style. They enjoy physical and social contact with others. They prefer shared meals and living spaces (Vincent, 2003; Rebhun, 1995).
Brazilians like to quote their favorite proverb that “Amor ‘ta na convivência” which literarily means “Love is living together.” They believe that connection with and the presence of others means love.
For Brazilians, being together with others is very natural and vital. Therefore, they believe that wanting to be alone is a sign of unhappiness and depression (Vincent, 2003; Rebhun, 1995).
The Ubiquitous Connections of Brazilian Love
Love is a very important topic in Brazilian culture. They are in love relationships across many kinds of relationships and contexts. Family love is vital for their economic and emotional sustainability. Passionate romantic love is embodied in their lives. Love is in the rhythms of their music, poetry, dance, and carnivals.
The Portuguese word “parentela”, meaning “relations” and, in some sense, “family,” implies a vital network of interpersonal connections with members of the extended family. They acquire a sense of self within a familial group from an early age. For Brazilians, such close connections in an extended family bring them feelings of interpersonal affection and emotional support.
Passionate Love of Brazilians
Many Brazilians consider themselves passionate and hot-blooded Latin Americans. This may be related to their warm climate as well as their ethnic and cultural origins. The modern Brazilian population is a mixture of diverse cultural influences and people of different ancestry, such as Native Indians, Africans, and Europeans, who are mostly of Portuguese descent but also include some Italians and Jews.
Since the early years of cultural research, Europeans and North Americans have believed that love emotions in Brazil are passionately and erotically open and expressive. Brazilians seem to fit pretty well into the classical image of Latin lovers. The widely known stereotype of Brazilian folk, as well as of some other societies in South America and Polynesia, is expressed in the saying, “There is no sin below the equator.”
The expression might have its origins in the early Dutch occupation of northern Brazil in the 17th century. Nevertheless, it is still commonly referenced, occasionally by Brazilians themselves (Parker, 2009). This stereotype of Brazilian culture is reinforced for many people by the internationally famous and vividly colorful images of Brazilian carnivals.
The Mysterious “Saudade” of Brazilian Love
The Brazilians’ relations within the family, among kin and friends, fluctuate between pleasant feelings of “convivência” (living together) and the sad experience of “saudade” (longing for connection). They are used in the presence of significant others. So they feel saudade in the absence of their loved ones.
The culturally specific Portuguese word “saudade” means the mixed emotions of sadness and pleasure that Brazilians experience when they remember the people and events that they loved but that are no longer present. They miss them during their absence.
When Brazilians live through the saudade episodes of their lives, they experience the blended feelings of missing a loved one, longing for connection, and nostalgia. (Neto & Mullet, 2014; Rebhun, 1995, p. 249). Most Brazilians have never been alone in their lives. Therefore, they feel intense saudade when those they love are not present now.