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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 12 



ances in the immediate neighborhood. One house- 

 wife says, "I never go out except to visit my sister 

 -who lives right near here. Once in a while I also 

 go to see my comadre^'' Another woman, who 

 lives only about 2 miles from the village, says, "I 

 almost never leave the farm. It's 4 years now since 

 I've been to the village." A third woman, who oc- 

 casionally visits her sister in Piracema, says, "I 

 never go on a day of festa because she rents out her 

 house then and there wouldn't be room. Mostly, I 

 visit my married children (who live on the same 

 farm) . I hardly ever go further. I don't need to, 

 with all my children and grandchildren." 

 Another woman says, "Sometimes on Sunday I go 

 to see one of my comadres who lives near here. I 

 have lots of comadres. I go see one of them one 

 Sunday and if another complains that I haven't 

 been to see her, I go see her the next Sunday. 

 Sometimes people come to our house in the eve- 

 ning ; but only men. They come to talk and play 

 truco (a card game) with my husband." 



In many cases, knowledge of other parts of the 

 world, including Brazil, does not exist or is vague 

 and inaccurate. One of the most able women in 

 the village, for instance, a woman who had heard 

 of the northern States of Alagoas, Sergipe, and 

 Ceara because persons from each of these States 

 have come to live in the village, once asked if 

 Amazonas was in Brazil. When her husband, one 

 of the best informed men in the village, replied in 

 the affirmative, she inquired if Buenos Aires were 

 in Brazil. A person present then asked if the 

 United States were in Brazil. Several men and 

 an occasional woman, however, are better in- 

 formed. 



As has been indicated, contact with the outside 

 world through letters or the printed page is pos- 

 sible almost daily by way of the village postal 

 station. Each day of the week except Monday, 

 during the past 25 years, John-the-Letter-Carrier 

 has brought the mail to the village from the nearest 

 point on the rail line, usually on foot, over a rather 

 precarious road, with a punctuality that is legend 

 in the community. 



The extent of this contact, however, is quite 

 limited. During the month of March 1947, for 

 instance, John-the-Letter-Carrier brought 1G9 let- 

 ters to the village and took 148 out, or an average 

 of about 5.5 and 5 letters, respectively, each day. 

 A considerable portion of the correspondence was 



of official character, received or sent out by one 

 or the other of the village officials. Almost all the 

 other letters were received or sent by village offi- 

 cials, the storekeepers, or the teachers, the receiv- 

 ing or sending of a letter by another villager or a 

 farmer being a rare occurrence. There is no mail 

 delivery within the village or to the farms. 



Twenty-nine items of printed matter were re- 

 ceived during the month, all of which were ques- 

 tionnaires or similar forms sent to the tax collec- 

 tor, the village registrar, or the -fiscal da prefeitura, 

 and 30 similar items were sent out. No registered 

 letters were received or sent during the month."* 



Of six young men, aged 15 to 19, who were asked 

 how many letters each had received during his 

 lifetime, two replied that they had received none ; 

 one that he had received two letters and the other 

 three young men that they had received three let- 

 ters each. The two letters received by one of these 

 young men had been sent by his father and an 

 uncle. One of the three young men who had re- 

 ceived three letters each had heard from an aunt, 

 a godmother, and a friend of about his own age; 

 another had heard three times from an uncle; and 

 the third young man had heard from three 

 friends, one in a nearby town, one in a State to 

 the west of Sao Paulo, and the third in Rio de 

 Janeiro. 



The tax collector and the registrar of vital sta- 

 tistics also received regularly the Diario Official, 

 a Government publication in which all laws, regu- 

 lations, decrees, and similar pronouncements are 

 officially published. Two persons, a storekeeper 

 and the administrator of the fazenda that lies at 

 the edge of the village, receive Estado de Sao 

 Paulo, a daily newspaper printed in the capital 

 city ; and four other persons, a second storekeeper, 

 the village registrar, the baker, and a school 

 teacher, receive regularly O Diario de Sao Paulo, 

 another daily newspaper printed in the city. The 

 cojDies that go to the storekeepers, however, are 

 used more for wraj^ping articles purchased at the 

 stores, than for reading. No magazines or similar 

 publications are received. 



"' Five of the letters sent and three of those received during 

 the month were com valor dectarado (with a declared value) and 

 carried currency, in keeping with a service whose purpose is sim- 

 ilar to that of the post-offlce money order in the United States. 

 The total amount of money involved was 1,223 cruzeiros in the 

 three incoming letters and 1,538 cruzeiros in the five letters 

 sent out, or approximately $66 and $83, respectively. 



