CRUZ DAS almas: a BRAZILIAN VILLAGE' — ^PIERSON 



129 



RELATIONS WITHIN THE FAMILY 



Relations inside the family ordinarily are inti- 

 mate and sentimental and, as snch, eminently satis- 

 fying to the individual. Parents tend to be in- 

 dulgent toward their children and to lavish at- 

 tention and affection upon them. "I work to eat 

 and drink," said a villager, expressing a common 

 attitude, "and to take care of my children." 



In some cases, this attention and affection are 

 of such a character as to develop in the child not 

 only a decided dependence upon the parent but 

 also a magnified ego. A healthy 3-year-old boy, 

 for instance, was observed to slip on the earthen 

 floor of a farm kitchen. Although the fall was 

 inconsequential, the child began at once to cry 

 loudly. The father rushed over and picked him 

 up. The gi-andfather followed and, putting out 

 his arms as if to take the child, said, "Have you 

 hurt yourself, my precious little one?" The boy 

 kept on crying, although the volume of sound di- 

 minished. The grandmother then came and took 

 him from the father, speaking all the while to 

 him in endearing tones. Shortly thereafter, the 

 mother took him from the grandmother and car- 

 ried him out the door, patting him on the back and 

 talking soothingly to him. Since a child tends to 

 take toward himself the attitudes which others 

 take toward him, it is clearly evident that under 

 these circumstances he may soon come to tliink of 

 himself as a person to whom all other people 

 always respond immediately and fully. "Diva," 

 said a farm mother of her small daughter, "is a 

 caution. When I walk to the village — it isn't 

 very far, j'ou know — she walks along with me all 

 the way, since I have to carry her baby sister and 

 there's usually something else to carry. But when 

 her father's along, she won't walk. Even if she's 

 not a bit tired, she'll sit right down on the ground 

 and won't budge until he picks her up. At home, 

 she runs around, back and forth, the whole day 

 long and never gets tired. It's only when she goes 

 out with her father that she's determined she must 

 be carried." A-^liile the mother was speaking, 

 Diva was leaning up against her knee and the 

 mother's arm was about her, caressing the daugh- 

 ter affectionately. In a gentle tone of voice, the 

 mother said, "You're a little rascal, aren't you, 

 minha neguinha?'''' -^' 



^'ifinAo neguinha (my liltle Negro girl) is a term of freat 

 affpotion. See Pierson, 1942. p. 139. 



Under these circumstances, one notes a gradual 

 inflation of the developing child's ego which tends 

 to be disadvantageous to him in contacts outside 

 the family and, more especially, in contacts with 

 strangei-s from outside the community. The child 

 naturally comes to expect treatment from these 

 other persons in keeping with that dispensed to- 

 ward him in the family and, when it is not forth- 

 coming, to feel frustrated and resentful, usually 

 without understanding the source of these feelings. 

 He then tends to become sensitive, "touchy," easily 

 offended. 



According to the local mores, the principal ob- 

 ligations of a mother are to show affection for 

 her children, to care for their needs as best she 

 can, and to teach them jorescribed conduct. "The 

 true mother," said a villager, "is one who goes 

 through suffering and overcomes difficulties for 

 the love of her children." Several young men 

 who were asked "What is the duty of a mother 

 to her children?" gave the following replies: 



.Slie should love them. 



She should feed them and keep them clean. 



She should teach them to work and to get on well 



with other people. 

 She should love them and teach them to work hard. 

 She should teach them what is right. 

 She should take good care of them and bring them up 



well. 

 She should love her children and also correct them ; 



for if she doesn't, they will grow up di.sobedient 



and ill-mannered. 



A child without affection for his mother 

 is considered an extremely abnormal cliild. 

 When a person in the community refers to his 

 mother, he usually does so with undisguised ten- 

 derness. "Everyone should love and cherish his 

 mother," said a young farm boy, 17 years old, "for 

 it is she who, with hard work and much suffering, 

 has taken good care of us. We should understand 

 what she has suffered and always obey her." 

 Other persons in the community expressed the 

 local pattern of these relations in the following 

 words : 



Ton owe more to your mother than to anyone else in 

 the world. Xo one is equal to her, no matter how good 

 they are. 



From the day you are born, your mother works hard for 

 you. She carries you, she feeds you, she puts you to 

 sleep. When you grow older, she still does a lot for you. 

 She never stops thinking about you. 



