CRUZ DAS almas: a BRAZILIAN VILLAGE' — ^PIERSON 



209 



specialists, for example, the bell ringer, the horse- 

 shoer, and the auctioneer of pi'endas. Of such a 

 "specialist," a villager complained, "That woman 

 seems to have nothing else to do except tell tales 

 about other people."' Of the same person, another 

 villager remarked, "We call her 'the newspaper.' " 

 The role of projDaganda as a mechanism of 

 social control is quite reduced in the community. 

 In politics and especially during election cam- 

 paigns, its role is attempted, but the control which 

 most often ensues is less due to the effectiveness 

 of the propaganda itself than to the suggestion 

 transmitted by way of rapport and the prestige 

 of the man who disseminates it. Similarly, it is 

 only on rare occasions that a local inhabitant is 

 made aware of the existence of formal law. 

 Where the mores are universally effective, law 

 has little, or no, function and hence no necessity 

 of existence. In fact, law usually emerges when 

 the mores begin to break down. Legal prescrip- 

 tions touch the life of local inhabitants almost ex- 

 clusively in the form of taxation, in activities 

 connected with the settlement of an estate or the 

 drawing up and transfer of a deed, or the rituals 

 of the civil marriage ceremony. If a person 

 drinks pinga to excess, he may also find himself 

 locked up for the night in the village jail. The 

 action in this case, however, is taken at the order 

 of the local sui-delegado who may be a relative or 

 compadre or at least an acquaintance, and conse- 

 quently the enforcement of the law in this case has 

 a more informal, than formal, character, as is 

 revealed in the ordinarily tolerant and sympa- 

 thetic way in which the deviation from the norm 

 is handled by the village official. "Sometimes I 

 just send them home,'' he says, "and then I talk 

 to them later. I tell them that that is no way for 

 a man with a family, or the son of Nho Brais, to 

 act." 



Even violent behavior, such as a heated quarrel 

 or other serious form of conflict, is similarly 

 treated. "This village gives one very little trou- 

 ble," remarked the soldado^ '•'■E coino uma fami- 

 lia so (It's just like one big family). The sith- 

 delegado has 53 compadres besides all his rela- 

 tives, and whenever a dispute breaks out, the 

 people here usually settle it among themselves." 

 Self-control, the most effective of all controls, 

 is, as might be expected, highly developed in the 

 community. Since there is comparatively little 



uncertainty regarding the mores, the control 

 which they exercise over the conduct of the indi- 

 vidual is of powerful character. As soon as he 

 has assumed the attitudes common to the com- 

 munity, he obviously comes to look upon his own 

 behavior much as other persons look upon it. 

 The external controls thus become internalized. 



HUMOR 



A characteristic trait of the local society and 

 culture is humor. Rarely are the faces of the in- 

 habitants set in serious lines, expressing pre- 

 occupation or intense seriousness. The encounter 

 of two or more persons at the home of a villager 

 or farmer, in a street of the village, on the road, 

 at a venda, or elsewhere, almost invariably evokes 

 smiles on the part of all present and humorous 

 remarks which, sooner or later, may result in 

 laughter, the frequency and intensity of which 

 will increase with the rapport which laughing 

 always helps to evoke and nurture. 



When a person joins a group that is conversing, 

 he usually is welcomed with a jocular remark 

 which symbolizes his acceptance by the others and 

 his ready incorporation into the group. Refer- 

 ence may be made to some well-known character- 

 istic of the person or to some event, recent or 

 remote, in which he figured, the recalling of which 

 evokes humor on the part of all present. On one 

 occasion, for instance, a conversation group was 

 joined by Sen Jaime, a villager who is universally 

 respected and admired and who, occasionally, by 

 preference, goes barefoot. As he approached, 

 one of the men in the group turned toward him 

 and said, "Look at the fellow! That miser! 

 Let's all chip in and buy him a pair of shoes." 

 "Yes," said another person who was present, re- 

 ferring to the fact that the economic condition of 

 the man in question is above the average in the 

 community, "Can it be that he hasn't piled up 

 enough money to buy a pair of shoes?" After 

 which he added, addressing himself to Seu Jaime, 

 "We were just talking about the fact that a miser, 

 the more he has the more he wants and the worse 

 he lives." 



This banter, taking its cue from the well-known 

 habit of their friend, served to welcome him into 

 the group and also to acquaint him, in a humorous 

 way, with the subject under consideration. Since 

 the man in question in no sense is considered a 



