Goldsteins and Marquezs ethnographies of Brazil - Essay Example

Comparison of Goldstein’s and Marquez’s ethnographies of Brazil Goldstein and Marquez are two authors who took the initiative to describe the populations of Latin American experience. They give detailed ethnographies of the two communities according to anthropological studies. Goldstein describes life in Brazilian shanty town Rio de Janeiro while Marquez tackles the experiences of the young street children in Venezuela. Both authors explore factors that contribute to the challenges faced by the people. The two books provide a good source of first hand data from interviews and narrations of residents of the areas under study. Both writers give a report of their observation over a period of time that they have been part of the societies. Both writers bring out key challenges in Latin America. Latin Americans face challenges as a minority group in the American society. On the other hand, Goldstein describes how the residents of the Brazilian shanty towns handle their daily challenges. He relates to the humor that results in their bid to hide the challenges they face each day. This humor that is a complete contrast of the situation at hand is what influenced the title of the book. Both writers are anthropologists seeking to highlight the societal set-up of communities. Both authors describe the South American experience of some communities. They depict the real situation of some marginalized groups. The two authors take a bold step in describing the social problems surrounding poverty, racism and unemployment, topics that many anthropologists avoid. Both writers have studied with interest the social set-up of Brazil, a region inhabited by a large number of minority groups. The region faces marginalization in many aspects of life. The effects of the racial factor in the marginalized area are evident. The authors boldly highlight the true experience of minority groups in America. The topics handled cause a freak to many anthropologists. However, these two writers have taken time to give an account of the circumstances of societies that have always demanded inclusion. However, the accounts reveal that the societies still experience exclusion. In addition, the anthropologists describe how different classes interact in the Latin society and the general effects on society. Goldstein’s book is a reflection of study findings in the 1990’s in Brazilian shanty towns. The author describes the experiences of women living in several of the shanty towns. He describes in a novel-like structure the experience of domestic workers in Rio de Janeiro. The author tells of his findings through the description of Gloria’s life, family and events surrounding her survival in the shanty towns. Goldstein exposes the readers to the humor that is so out of place (Goldstein 6). The people experience tragedies that they do not seem to find solutions for and they result to creating humor out of the painful experiences. The experiences move the reader because there is a reverse of reactions from the people. They laugh when it is time to cry. Such circumstances form the background on which Goldstein writes the ethnography. The laughter out of place is a novel that gives rise to sadness and empathy. The challenges faced by the residents of shanty towns in a falling economy are unbearable and unimaginable by the reader. In addition, society is full of social problems that lack solutions and nobody seeks to address them. Marquez is an anthropologist who crosses borders to befriend and get highlights of street life in Venezuela. The author explores the factors that contribute to social degradation that sends young people and children to the streets exposing them to crime and other social ills (Marquez 22). In addition, the book highlights the real life challenges of the minority group in America that has the highest number of street children. The author brings out the vivid reality through narrations of experiences of selected street children in the first half of the book. In the second half, the author describes the experience of young delinquents in detention camps. Marquez published the book in 1999 and it is clear that the ethnography draws data from the 1990’s experience. Both books describe the anthropology of South America in the 1990’s handling the real challenges of the people and the descriptions are highly comparable. Marquez took a task of exposing facts that previous research into the emergence of street children had not tackled. The facts brought to the surface in her book are more diverse than what many people have assumed over time. For a long time, poverty has been the pinpointed factor contributing to the rise of street children. However, the book ‘the street is my home’ elaborates how political and economical systems contribute in a broad sense to multiple social problems. Economical and political systems in the region are demanding. These result to rise of social disorder and make the region more prone to crime (Marquez 22). The ways used by the people to solve these problems give rise to fresh problems. Venezuela has the world’s half of street children, a statistical fact that leads to many unanswered questions. These are the facts that influenced Marquez to endeavor in a study that sought to give answers to the pending questions. Goldstein tackles the issue of class and race in the shanty towns. The region has a great number of Latin Americans. These people have faced discrimination from the whites for a long time and are a depiction of the sad realities of the American society. The race factor results to segregation of society into classes. The upper class consists of the advantaged lot of people. These are few individuals who have the upper hand in society (Goldstein 7). These are the people who have good jobs and decent residential areas with access to security and standard social services and amenities. In addition, there is the middle class that has average to live on. On one side of the stretch, some middle class people live comfortably while others struggle to survive on the rarely adequate income. On the lower side of society is a group that Goldstein describes in depth. The low class of the society has painful experiences to describe their existence. They live in the extremes of poverty, a complete contrast of the upper class. They lack access to basic social amenities such as schools, hospitals and good housing. These people living in the shanty towns experience a high level of insecurity (Goldstein 58). The issue of class is evidently brought out in the book laughter out of place. The author describes the broad divide between the rich and the poor. The two live in different worlds and take life differently. The things that trigger laughter to the poor trigger tears to the upper class. The author describes it as black humor. The poor use laughter to blind themselves of the pain they are used to in their daily lives. The women described in the book are domestic workers who face all kind of hardship but laughter is a common factor in their lives. The author unravels the bitter truths behind the humor exposing the level of inequalities in the society. Race is major factor contributing to the inequalities in their society (Goldstein 64). Goldstein uses Gloria’s circumstances to highlight to the reader the realities of the effects of the inequalities in society. The extended family that the author illustrates lives in a shack as their home. . The author provides an illustration of the poor housing units to help the reader create a picture of the evident level of poverty (Goldstein 24). The illustration also helps the reader visualize the broad gap between the upper class and lower class of society. Other illustrations of scenes that the author describes help the reader capture the extremes of poverty that the people undergo. The author describes the school system in the poverty-stricken regions. The likes of Gloria are women who clack education, sophistication and civilization of any form. They live in an area that has not received any form of external interest. It is excluded from the rest of the world. The shanty towns lack any plans of development underway and the lives of the people living ion these regions are not in the interest of the nation. Power controls the lives of the people in a massive way. The people have never experienced any form of democracy in their lives. The younger generation is trying to evade the same fate as the older generations but there are too many challenges on the way. The inequalities have resulted to extremes of social problems in the American society. According to Goldstein, the people depend on minimal wages as their only source of living. Poverty defines the status of most of the low class people. Only a few people who belong to the upper class understand the meaning of having enough to live on. The rest of the population on the shanty towns are domestic workers. Poverty results from the economic and political instabilities in the region. From Goldstein’s narration, poverty has intensive and extensive effects on the people living in the shanty regions. The people have to find a means of survival despite the poverty that engulfs their every day life. They live in constant uncertainty. They are not able to predict what the future will bring. They cannot tell whether life will change and become more favorable to them. The political social and economic systems move from bad to worse each day. Social evils and all sorts of crime are the factors that describe their daily lives. Desperation, homelessness and urban desertification are the terms that the people understand the meaning of and the sad realities that define their existence. The people living in the shanty towns lack security and the regions record high crime rates. The police in these regions have relented and abandoned their responsibility. They lack the capacity to combat the crimes in the community. The people have tales of murder, rape, and robbery. Drug bandits have taken control of the region and they constantly ambush the people. This brings forth an additional social problem concerning drugs and substance abuse. The death of Adilson described in the book and the illustration provided by Goldstein is a clear evidence of the situations as they are in the shanty towns (Goldstein 216). The only thing that the people are sure of is the death that they will face. On the other hand, Marquez opens up the reader to life on the streets of Caracas (Marquez 16). The society has all sorts of inequalities. The state does not listen to the voice of the people and this explains why there are constant riots on the streets. The state oppresses its people and pays them too little for the work they do. Everyone in society feels the pain of the ongoing oppression. Most of the people rise to air their grievances. The streets become their regular destination when they are seeking to be heard. University students have formed a habit of expressing their discontent each week on the streets. Teachers in the shanty towns complain of the meager pay that they get for their labor. The retired public servants do not get their due in increment of retirement benefits. The society has all forms of social injustices. The economic system is failing. Poor governance is making the situation worse (Marquez 22). The increasing social injustices have led to an increasing number of young people on the streets carrying out illegal trade and exposing themselves to all forms of crime (Marquez 3). The young people are trying to make something out of their lives. They have no more viable options because of the ongoing injustices in society. The state has neglected its people. The media portrays the young people as sources of violence and they face accusations of distracting peace and social order. However, Marquez unravels the factors that lead to the rising levels of young people on the streets and their indulgence in crime. When society cannot present the youth with opportunities to build their lives, the youth opt for the type of activities evident in Caracas. Families have disintegrated and the youth have no place to find hope and comfort (Marquez 5). The youth in universities do not stand better chances. Violence fills the streets of Caracas. The author describes the forms of violence in depth and highlights the causes of unrest in the streets. In part two of the book, the author reveals the tragedies befalling youth who end up in detention camps and prisons. The injustices and inequalities in society give rise to all the tragedies that befall the youth. In Caracas, the youth face a blurred future and unless the state addresses all political, economical and social issues, things are unlikely to change. The two authors give detailed ethnographies that highlight ways in which economical and political issues compound with social problems making life very hard for the lower class in them hold the view that the state should seek to include all marginalized groups to reduce the evident gap between the rich and the poor. The authors describe events in a way that catches the attention of both a South American and North American reader. The anthropology accounts presented indicate both communities need inclusion. The minority groups have faced enough challenges and the two authors give make it clear that class and racism coupled with poverty and political instability are factors that are pulling South America down. Both authors describe the effects of social degradation on the adolescents and young people exposing them to crime. There is a distinct difference that the two authors address the same issues and events. Goldstein chooses to apply the use of black humor by the low class people to trigger the attention of the reader. She tells the story of the shanty towns in a comical way. The comic is satirical and indicates the depth of the hardships that the people bear. On the other hand, Marquez describes the violence and pains of the people directly. In addition, the author of the book ‘the street is my home’ relates to a series that runs on one of the media houses to create a bigger picture of the circumstances of the people (Marquez 27). The series employed both fiction and some real episodes to help the viewers to grasp the bitter realities. Goldstein presents the hope that the people have despite their situations. Goldstein portrays that if the state committed to its responsibilities, things would change for the better. Marquez shows the state of desperation, hopelessness and violence that ensued in Caracas in 1990’s (Marquez 22). The two books describe the effects of inequalities and social injustices on the society. The two authors elaborate the circumstances of the people living in South America in the 1990’s. The marginalized areas portrayed face multiple hardships as a result of the failing economic and political systems. Both authors provide first hand information on the history of Latin America in the 1990’s. Brazil faced a high level of instability evident from the ethnographies from the two authors. While many anthropologists avoid addressing some pressing issues such as described above, the two authors have taken a bold step and acted as a voice for the marginalized in Latin America. Work Cited Goldstein, Donna. Laughter out of place: race, class, violence and sexuality in a Rio shanty town. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Print. Marquez, Patricia. The street is my home: youth and violence in Caracas. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002. Print. Read More