Considerations about the colonial heritage in Brazilian cultural and religious practices, based on the work Casa-Grande & Senzala, by Gilberto Freyre

Abstract

Sociocultural practices, including religious ones, contributed, fundamentally, to the establishment of Brazil's cultural identity, a perspective from which this article starts, with the aim of analyzing Chapter III, The Portuguese Colonizer: Background and predispositions of the work Casa-Grande & Senzala: formation of the Brazilian family under the regime of patriarchal economy, by Gilberto Freyre, and the cultural reflections of/in Portuguese colonization, still present today. The research problem we intend to answer is: to what extent did Portuguese colonization culturally influence Brazilian society, with an emphasis on contemporary religious practices, based on the work Casa-Grande & Senzala, by Gilberto Freyre? The research was divided into two sections: addressing certain aspects, in Freyre's work, about Portuguese colonization and pointing out the intertwining of different cultural and religious traditions, despite the historical religious syncretism, which currently represents religious diversity in Brazil . In relation to Freyre's work, the ideology of romanticized colonization is highlighted, in the figure of the Portuguese colonizer, a period considered by Freyre as harmonious, contrasting with the reality experienced by marginalized ethnic groups in the country. The social structure, resulting from the colonial period, reflected in contemporary social dynamics, such as power relations, the economy, structural racism, social inequalities and cultural practices. In the second section, statistical data on religious institutions demonstrated the growth of temples and the plurality of beliefs, which may indicate the observance of religious diversity. To develop this research, the method used was deductive, based on bibliographic review and documentary research.