Brazil is the fifth most-populous country on Earth and accounts for one-third of Latin America’s population. to strongly influence the Brazilian Portuguese language; other Indian contributions to Brazilian culture are most apparent in the Amazon basin. African influences on the Brazilian way of life are strongest along the coast between the Northeast and Rio de Janeiro; they include traditional foods, the modern Brazilian way of life. The Portuguese culture is by far the dominant of these influences; from it Brazilians acquired their language, their main religion, and most of their customs. The Indian population is now statistically small, but Tupí-Guaraní, the language of many Brazilian Indians, continues religions, and popular music and dance, especially the samba. Commercial and cultural imports from Europe and North America have often competed with—and influenced—Brazilians’ own cultural output, and critics have argued that the nation’s cultural identity is suffering as a result. Despite numerous social and economic challenges, Brazilians continue to be exuberant and creative in their celebrations and art forms. The rapid large-scale urbanization of Brazil following World War II radically altered the lifestyle of the majority of the country’s inhabitants. In most ways, large Brazilian cities differ little from others in the Western world, but their greater degree of crowding and large volume of pedestrian traffic may in some cases compare more closely to the cities of China than of North America. EC Source: Articles are extracted from Britannica and photos courtesy of unsplash.com
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EC Magazines | L.A. Times Edition 2022
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