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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 1 2 



Woman, primary-school teacher, 27 years old : 



A caipira is anyone from the "interior," whether he lives 

 in a small town or in the country. 



Woman, cashier, 25 j'ears old: 



The caipira is a man who in Europe would be called a 

 peasant, a \^orker of the land. He is indolent, undernour- 

 ished, in ill health and, usually, illiterate. 



Man, student, 21 years old : 



A caipira is a person in the "interior." He lives like 

 one ought to live. He is easily satisfied. Resigned by 

 nature, he cultivates a little patch of land, planting only 

 what he needs to live on. His pipe is his inseparable 

 companion, and also his violao. He does not covet riches. 



Man, clerk, 25 years old : 



The caipira is a man in the country who is respectful and 

 hardworking. 



Housewife, 50 years old : 



A caipira is a person from the woods, without schooling ; 

 but he is sincere and there is no guile in him. 



Apparently, the country people have always 

 thought of themselves as caipiras. The disparag- 

 ing significance now given to this term by many 

 inhabitants of the city, however, is becoming 

 known in the country and increasingly is resented 

 as unfair and undeserved and consequently is used 

 less and less. Local inhabitants defend them- 

 selves upon this point. "Among us caipiras," said 

 a villager, "one finds a few persons who are crude, 

 but he also finds many who are well brought up 

 and who know how to treat people." "A person 

 may be a caipira,''^ said a local farmer, "but he can 

 see who knows how to treat other people and who 

 doesn't. Wliy, there are caipiras here who could 

 give lessons to many persons in the city on how to 

 treat folks." 



A village leader explained : 



The caipira is very shy. It's for this reason that when 

 a person comes to his home the first time, he doesn't make 

 him at home in his house. But he has a good heart. He 

 acts a bit queer, but it's not because he's bad. It's just 

 that he doesn't know what to do when it's a person he's 

 never seen before. He doesn't know very much and this 

 makes him desconfiado. He is like a deer: the deer is 

 going about his business, he suddenly sees something and 

 is frightened, he starts running and doesn't stop until he's 

 a long way off ; then he comes back slowly to see what it 

 was that startled him. That's the way a caipira is. If 

 someone makes him a proposition and he doesn't under- 

 stand it, he puts him off until tomorrow or some other 

 day, until he can figure it out ; then he decides. 



Occasionally, a local inhabitant takes delight in 

 a characteristic shown by someone in the commu- 

 nity which belies the disparaging meaning given 

 the term. One often hears the remark, "He is a 

 caipira saiido (clever, sharp)." Of an especially 

 shrewd business deal on the part of a local farmer, 

 a villager remarked, "Artur is a caipira viajado 

 (one who has been around, knows his way about) . 

 He's a caipira who 'cuts from both sides'; no one 

 catches him unawares. In this world, he who 

 walks least, flies." -°* "He is a caipira 'of little 

 time,' (one who catches on quickly)," remarked a 

 villager of a friend. "He treats me like I was a 

 caipira,''^ said a village storekeeper of a traveling 

 salesman. "I am a caipira but I can tell the dif- 

 ference between what is true and what is false. 

 He thinks he'll carry me away with his big talk. 

 I go along, along, up to the point where it is to my 

 interest to follow him. After that, the sauce is 

 different." "They say I'm a stupid caipira,''^ said 

 a young man in the village of persons in a neigh- 

 boring town, "and that anyone can easily fool me. 

 I'll show them what a caipira really is" (said with 

 an air of defiance) . 



At the same time, the country folk tend to think 

 of themselves as superior in several ways to the 

 inhabitants of the city. For one thing, they re- 

 gard the cidaddo as less virtuous. "People in the 

 city," said a young farmer, "are very false. You 

 can't trust anybody and nobody will trust you." 

 "Us caipiras" said a farmer, "don't live talking 

 about what we are going to do ; when we give our 

 word, we stand back of it." "My granddaugh- 

 ters," said a farm woman, referring to the children 

 of a daughter who had married and gone to live in 

 the city, "spend a lot. "WTien they see someone buy 

 something, they have to have the same thing. 

 Such extravagance!" The person from the city 

 is considered to be less able or willing to work 

 hard. "Wlien my granddaughters come to visit 

 me," said the same farm woman, "they don't want 

 to do anything. I say to them, 'Come help us 

 plant' or 'There's beans there to be threshed.' 

 But they don't care to work. They're afraid 

 they'll get calluses on their hands." "People in 

 the city," complained a farm woman, "are too 

 soberho" (haughty, given to looking down upon 



2M "That is," the informant further explained, "everyone is 

 taking as much advantage as he can of everyone else and, con- 

 sequently, everyone must be on his guard." 



