Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0012/00125.txt

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$Unique_ID{bob00125}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Brazil
Chapter 2A.   The Society and Its Environment}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{P. A. Kluck}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{rio
amazon
highlands
meters
de
kilometers
central
sao
south
serra
see
pictures
see
figures
see
tables
}
$Date{1982}
$Log{See Samba dancer*0012501.scf
See Land Use*0012502.scf
See Table B.*0012501.tab
}
Title:       Brazil
Book:        Brazil, A Country Study
Author:      P. A. Kluck
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1982

Chapter 2A.   The Society and Its Environment

[See Samba dancer: Samba Dancer]

     Brazilian society of the early 1980s was marked by pronounced regional
and ethnic diversity. The country's principal regions include the
industrialized and relatively prosperous South and Southeast, the
impoverished, agricultural Northeast and its humid littoral and arid
backlands, the Center-West, and the Amazon Basin, the latter two only recently
opened to large-scale settlement and development. All the regions vary in
their economic and political histories; each has been integrated into national
life in a slightly different fashion.

     Ethnic diversity accompanies the marked regionalism. Descendants of
Portuguese settlers, Amerindians, and African slaves comprise the main
cultural groups. The Lusitanian heritage has been disproportionate to the
absolute numbers of Portuguese immigrants to Brazil; they were colonizers and
left their mark on the country's political system and social institutions.
Language, kinship, and religion all reflect Portuguese hegemony during
Brazil's formative centuries. Amerindian influence is most strongly felt in
the Amazon Basin, African in the Northeast. Numbers of European, Middle
Eastern, and Asian immigrants came in the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. Most settled in the Southeast, particularly in Rio de Janeiro and
Sao Paulo, bringing with them significant and diverse skills and training.
They remain a mainstay of industrial development.

     Rural Brazil is-as it always has been-dominated by large landholdings.
Social organization was traditionally based on plantations that were devoted
to export crop production and that relied on slave labor. Peasant landholders
were relegated to marginal lands. Although they might have played a major role
in the local or regional economy, they were, with few exceptions, under the
hegemony of plantation owners. Sharecroppers, tenant farmers, and casual
laborers replaced slaves after slavery's abolition in 1888, but social
relations had changed little by the mid-1980s: few held resources and power.

     Paternalism moderated the impact of the more glaring disparities. An
elaborate courtesy surrounded the relations between plantation owners and
their dependents. The powerless exchanged their labor for land and their
loyalty and deference for patronage and protection. The ideal landowner would
assist his minions in their need and shelter them from the predations of
outsiders. The decline of resident plantation workers in favor of casual,
temporary laborers marked the 1960s and 1970s. Economic trends limited the
land available to sharecroppers and tenants as well as to the owners of small
farms who needed to rent parcels to make ends meet. All these swelled the
ranks of casual laborers. The increase in casual labor and the growing number
of agribusinesses and commercial interests owning land served to undermine the
traditional norms of patronage and dependency.

     Since the 1930s Brazil has had an increasingly mobile, urban population.
A "moving frontier" has long characterized agricultural expansion. As soils
were exhausted, owners abandoned their holdings to move to virgin lands.
Peasants were the frontier's vanguard, clearing forests only to be shunted
onto more remote parcels as their holdings came under the purview of
plantation owners. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, the agricultural
frontier moved southward from Rio de Janeiro, toward Sao Paulo, and thence
westward through the states of Sao Paulo and Parana. Fueled by demographic
growth, the migration continued in the 1960s and 1970s, moving into Goias.
Mato Grosso, and Amazonas. With each advance the latest frontier gradually
reestablished the social relations typical of more settled regions. Efforts to
use frontier lands to absorb the landless from elsewhere and to develop a
class of independent small family farms foundered.

     The most spectacular population growth has not been in the rural frontier
but in the large cities. Much of the economic-political transformation of the
past half-century relates to urban growth. The expansion in industry and
commerce and the concomitant rise in the influence of the bourgeoisie are
city based. The development of a substantial middle class of educated and
skilled employees to staff the burgeoning government bureaucracy and public
sector is likewise an urban phenomenon. Increased urbanization-far more than
migration to the frontier-has been Brazil's answer to skyrocketing population
growth and unrest in the countryside. Sons and daughters of the rural populace
have flocked to cities. For much of the 1960s and early 1970s cities provided
the rural-urban migrant with a measure of opportunity, if not affluence or
security. What the more uncertain 1980s would hold for the enormous and
growing numbers of urban, lower class Brazilians remained to be seen.

Geography

     The fifth largest country in the world, Brazil encompasses 8,511,965
square kilometers of territory, an area greater than that of the 48 contiguous
states of the United States (see fig. 1). It comprises about half of South
America's landmass and borders all but two of the continent's other countries
along a 15,700-kilometer land frontier. Brazil stretches 4,300 kilometers from
Cabo Orange in the north to Lagoa Mirim on its border with Uruguay in the
south and a similar distance from Cabo Branco on the Atlantic to the
westernmost point on its frontier with Peru. The country's coastline is more
than 7,500 kilometers long.

     The landscape of Brazil is dominated by two prominent features, the
Amazon River and the Central Highlands, a plateau that rises southward from
the great river. The Amazon, the world's mightiest river in terms of flow of
water and second longest after the Nile, cuts laterally across Brazil's
northern region, and countless tributary streams drain a vast basin that takes
in three-fifths of the national territory. The entire basin, including areas
in neighboring countries, supports a tropical rain forest that provides
natural replacement for 15 percent or more of the world's oxygen (see fig. 2).

     Most of the Central Highlands consist of a tableland varying in altitude
from 300 to 500 meters above sea level, broken by a number of low mountain
systems and cut by deep valleys. The highlands ascend steeply in the east
forming an escarpment, where several peaks attain an altitude of 2,500 meters
or more, and then drop precipitously to a narrow Atlantic coastal plain.

     According to a system of regional designations introduced in 1970 by the
Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (Fundacao Instituto Brasileiro
de Geografia e Estatistica-IBGE), the country is divided into five
regions-North, Northeast Southeast, South, and Center-West (Norte, Nordeste,
Sudeste, Sul, and Centro-Oeste). To facilitate statistical reporting, the
IBGE shows the regions as composed of entire states and territories (see
table B). As a consequence, they overlap the topographical zones.

[See Table B.: Regions of Brazil, 1980]

Topographical Zones

     Brazil's natural features can be delineated into five topographical
zones. These are the Central Highlands, the Guiana Highlands to the north of
the Amazon, the Amazon lowlands, the Pantanal, and the coastal plain (see fig.
3). Brazil, which has the lowest mean altitude of any other South American
country except Uruguay and Paraguay, officially defines its highlands as areas
with elevations in excess of 200 meters above sea level. According to this
definition, nearly 60 percent of its territory qualifies as highlands. Barely
4 percent of the total area is over 900 meters in altitude, and only 0.5
percent is more than 1,200 meters.

Central Highlands

     The principal highland zone, the Central Highlands, is tilted westward
and northward so that rivers rising near its eastern rim, almost within sight
of the Atlantic, flow inland for hundreds of kilometers before veering north
or south. The highland block displays a variety of minor relief features. The
northern and western half is made up of broad, rolling terrain punctuated
irregularly by low, rounded hills. Frequently these hills are given range
names but are not high enough to be considered mountains. Southward from the
Amazon Basin to the middle of Goias, the terrain becomes extremely rough.
Gradients are precipitous, and passage through them is difficult. In only two
places, between Santos and Sao Paulo and between Paranagua and Curitiba, does
the escarpment rise in a single slope that allows comparatively easy
communications between the coast and the interior. Roads frequently traverse
many kilometers to reach destinations only short linear distances apart. The
300-kilometer journey from Rio de Janeiro to Belo Horizonte in Minas Gerais,
which can be completed in little more than an hour by air, takes nearly a day
by rail.

     In this rugged context, remnants of crystalline rock have been weathered
by nature and stand above the general level as mountains, but only in a few
places do they extend above the timberline at 1,800 to 2,000 meters. The Serra
do Mar parallels the coast for 1,500 kilometers from Santa Catarina to Rio and
continues northward to Espirito Santo as the Serra dos Orgaos. This extended
range has a mean crest of about 1,500 meters topped by peaks above 2,000
meters, including Pedra Acu, which rises to 2,300 meters just west of Rio.

     The Serra do Mar is so near to tidewater in many places that it rises
almost directly above the shore. Elsewhere, the descent is over a series of
parallel steps with a valley at each interval, and it recedes to leave a
narrow littoral varying from 30 to 60 kilometers in width. There are passes
below 900 meters in only two places, where the Rio Paraiba do Sul and the
Rio Doce have cut their way through the escarpment north of Rio. The valleys
of these streams, however, are blocked off from the interior plateau by a
second range of mountains in Minas Gerais, the Serra da Mantiqueira. This
range is the highest and most rugged of the Central Highlands, and it includes
Pico da Bandeira, which at 2,898 meters is the highest elevation in the zone
and the third highest in the country.

     A third significant range of mountains traverses a north-south axis from
central Minas Gerais northward into Bahia. Appropriately named the Serra do
Espinhaco (Backbone Mountains), it forms a spine that determines the drainage
divide between the Rio Sao Francisco to the west and the short streams that
tumble eastward to the Atlantic. The range is important because of the great
wealth of minerals that it contains. Sometimes the Serra do Espinhaco and the
Serra da Mantiqueira and its southward-extending spurs are referred to
collectively as the Serra Geral.

Guiana Highlands

     Occupying only about 2 percent of the national territory, the Guiana
Highlands is a sparsley populated, largely undeveloped area north of the
Amazon. The highland slopes facing to the northwest receive heavy equatorial
rainfall, making them the source of countless streams that descend in rushing
falls and rapids to tributaries of the Amazon and the Rio Orinoco. None of
these watercourses is navigable to any distance upstream, and consequently
they contribute little to the development of the considerable mineral and
woodland wealth believed to exist near their headwaters. The southern slopes,
by contrast, are arid and stoney.

     These highlands form part of an immense plateau extending into Venezuela,
Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, and the mean altitude is much more
impressive than that of the Central Highlands. The crest of ranges constitutes
the divide between drainage northward to the Orinoco in Venezuela and westward
to the Amazon and divides Brazil's borders with its northern neighbors. At an
elevation of 3,014 meters, the Pico da Neblina in the Serra Imeri is Brazil's
highest mountain.

Amazon Lowlands

     The most extensive lowlands lie in the Amazon Basin. Fertile strips of
riverine land (varzeas) are located along the courses of major rivers and are
subject to frequent flooding, but the lowland region is characterized by
gently undulating terrain, classified as high ground in a flooded area (terra
firme), and has elevations sufficiently varied to permit rainwater to drain
off into streams.

     Although the Amazon lowlands include rolling savanna areas, particularly
on the plains in the northwest, the prevailing cover is tropical rain forest
(selva). It is estimated that 80 percent of the soils there are subject to
loss of topsoil through erosion, which amounts alarmingly to as much as five
tons per hectare annually when forest cover is removed for agriculture. A
government study released in 1974 concluded pessimistically that for this
reason much of the Amazon lowlands would be suitable only for grazing rather
than for colonization by farmers as had been promoted by government planners.
The better soils in the region are purple earth (terra roxa), which results
from the decomposition of dibasic and basaltic rocks and occurs principally
in a stretch of land north of the Amazon between the Xingu and Tapajos rivers.

Pantanal

     A second lowland area, the Pantanal, is an extension of the Grand Chaco
plain in Mato Grosso do Sul and is part of the Rio de la Plata Basin. The
floor of this lowland is largely swamp and marshland, with an average
elevation of 150 meters above sea level. Away from its many streams, which
make up the headwaters of the Rio Paraguai, sedimentary deposits have left the
soil suitable for varied agriculture. The area is too wet to support forest
growth other than lightwoods that grow on patches of high ground and are
valued for construction material. A long dry season with lower temperatures,
coupled with the presence of fertile alluvial soils, is conducive to good
pasturage for cattle raising, the principal economic activity in the Pantanal
(see fig. 4).

Coastal Plain

     The third and most highly developed lowland area is the narrow strip of
coastal plain that extends along the entire length of Brazil's Atlantic
seaboard. Comprising only 8 percent of the total area, the coastal plain
contains nearly 40 percent of the country's population. North of the mouth of
the Rio Sao Francisco, it widens to exhibit the luxuriant growth typical of
the Amazon Basin. South of the Cabo Sao Roque it remains tropical, merging
into subtropical, and narrows to a mere ribbon of land, 100 kilometers at most
in width, at the foot of the escarpment. In some places, particularly between
Rio de Janeiro and Santos, the plain disappears entirely where the highlands
cascade directly to the sea. Near its southern extremity in Rio Grande do Sul,
it widens into the rolling grasslands that merge with the pampas of Uruguay.

Climate

     There are three major climatic regions. Almost all of the North, the
coastal plain as far south as the state of Rio de Janeiro, and the northern
half of the Central Highlands are tropical areas with heavy rainfall and
elevated temperatures. A second region lies in the southeast portion of the
Central Highlands and along the coast to the southern portion of the state
of Sao Paulo. Wind movements in the uplands and ocean currents on the coast
temper the effects of the latitude and maintain subtropical climatic
conditions. The South constitutes a third region, where the predominantly
temperate climatic conditions are affected by Antarctic air currents when the
sun is north of the equator.

     Except in the South, the seasonal change in temperatures is not extreme.
It is along the northern coast, straddling the equator, that the highest
temperatures have been most consistently recorded, and temperatures in the
Northeast average several degrees higher than those in the interior of the
Amazon Basin. Far to the south and on the rim of the tropics, the city of Rio
de Janeiro has an average mean temperature of 24C, less than 3C lower than
that of Manaus on the Amazon. Summer temperatures in the South do not differ
markedly from those of the Southeast, but winter readings are much lower
there, and frosts occur.

     In most areas, seasons are marked by rainfall cycles determined by
latitude and elevation. For example, rainy seasons vary from October to March
in Sao Paulo, April to October in Recife, and January to June in the Amazon
lowlands. Summer outside the equatorial belt is from December to February.
Winter is a relatively drier season. Over much of the country, annual
precipitation ranges from 1,000 to 2,000 millimeters. Exceptions are the
Amazon Basin and northern coast, where annual rainfall regularly exceeds
2,000 millimeters, and the backcountry (sertao) of the Northeast, which
experiences frequent droughts and where rainfall is frequently less than
1,000 millimeters a year.

[See Land Use: Land Use]

     The sertao lies in the so-called polygon of drought that encompasses more
than 10 percent of the country's territory. Rainfall deficiency there is
reflected in occasional drought, however, rather than perennial inadequacy.
The area averages about 750 millimeters annually, but a locality receiving
1,000 millimeters or more in one year may get as little as 200 millimeters of
rain the next. Moreover, the rate of evaporation is very high. Floods and
drought are equally common, and about the only certainty is that rain will not
fall during the dry season, a period that at a minimum spans the months from
July to January.

Hydrography

     Brazil's river systems are among the world's most extensive. No other
three rivers combined equal the Amazon's flow of 300,000 kiloliters per
second that is discharged into the Atlantic, and silt discoloration can be
observed more than 300 kilometers seaward from its mouth. The main stream of
the Amazon rises in the western Andes less than 100 kilometers from the
Pacific Ocean and flows 6,400 kilometers from its source to the Atlantic.
Altogether there are more than 200 rivers in the Amazon system, which drains
60 percent of the country. Of the Amazon's 18 major tributaries, 10 measure
longer than the Mississippi River. The greatest of these is the Rio Negro,
which has its source in Colombia in the watershed between the Rio Orinoco and
that of the main stream of the Amazon. The principal tributaries of the 3,200
kilometer-long Rio Madeira, the second longest tributary, rise in the
Bolivian Andes and in the Pantanal, a region also drained by the Rio de la
Plata system.

     During its course eastward across northern Brazil, the Amazon drops only
about 440 meters. It is navigable by oceangoing vessels as far as Iquitos in
Peru; Manaus, more than 1,200 kilometers inland from the coast, is a
significant port. Smaller craft ply the Rio Madeira to Porto Velho, near the
Bolivian frontier.

     Other major streams rise in the Central Highlands. The Rio Xingu and Rio
Tapajos are major tributaries of the Amazon. The Rio Sao Francisco has its
source in the Serra da Canastra in Minas Gerais and flows northeastward for
1,500 kilometers along a line parallel to the coast before turning eastward
toward the sea. The river drops nearly 700 meters at the Paulo Afonson Falls
about 250 kilometers from its mouth. The Rio Doce has carved a deep valley
through the Serra dos Aimores to a broadening in the coastal plain in Espirito
Santo, where it finds its outlet to the sea. From its headwaters in the Serra
do Mar, the Rio Paraiba do Sul flows eastward through a rift between two
ranges before emptying into the sea at Cabo Sao Tome. The line of
communication between the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro lies along
the river valley.

     The Rio Tocantins rises in Goias in highlands near the Federal District
and flows northward, widening into an estuary where it becomes the Rio Para.
The river is linked to the Amazon in the delta region by the Rio de Breves,
a network of navigable waterways that rounds the Ilha de Marajo on the south
and west.

     Although many rivers of the Central Highlands originate close to the sea,
the westward inclination of the plateau causes most of them to flow inland,
into the Rio de la Plata system. All of these streams are interrupted in their
flow by falls and rapids as they descend from the highlands, and consequently
they are navigable only for short stretches. Of the three major rivers forming
part of the Rio de la Plata Basin in Brazil-the Rio Parana, Rio Paraguai, and
Rio Uruguay-the Parana is the largest and the one receiving the waters from
most of the tributary streams generated in the southern part of the Central
Highlands. From its headwaters in Goias, near those of the Rio Sao Francisco
and Rio Tocantins, the Parana flows southward and forms part of the frontier
with Paraguay on its course to the estuary of the Rio de la Plata. One of its
important Brazilian tributaries, the Rio Iguacu, plunges more than 700 meters
over a six kilometer-wide stretch of cataracts near its confluence with the
Parana.

     Sluices were closed in October 1982 on the 1,500-meter-high Itaipu Dam
across the Parana just west of the Iguacu Falls. The dam, a joint
Brazilian-Paraguayan undertaking designed primarily to provide energy for the
cities and industries of the Southeast, is the world's largest hydroelectric
project. Waters backed up by the dam will create a 325-kilometer-long, 1,500
square-kilometer artificial lake on the Parana, eventually covering the
cataracts of the Guaira Falls.