1. Ethnography
1.1. Combining Humor with ethnography Goldstein decides to provide the reader with more ethnographic content rather than explaining why something is funny. Through the ethnographic content that meaning will become clear.
1.2. Goldstein over a decade devoted her life to understanding the everyday life of the women of the favelas, or urban shantytowns in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
1.3. Living with Gloria's family in Brazil and examining their customs and cultures.
2. Black Humor
2.1. Black Humor is used as a window into understanding how people experience life.
2.2. Zeca's tragic death is an example of how this black humor is utilized in understanding Gloria and her families experience.
2.2.1. Zeca's story is told through a "Bakhtinian or Rabelaisian version of life, where one sweats, farts, shits and laughs his way to death."
2.2.2. To an outsider this story may seem harsh and unbelievable; but in this culture it is how they express their emotions; or rather mask them behind this laughter.
2.3. "Unable to revolt, they use their laughter to oppose official Brazilian racial, class, and gender ideology. Laughter reveals the fault lines in social relations." pg 35
3. Methodology
4. Chapter 2 & 3
4.1. The Aesthetics of Domination
4.1.1. Colonial Brazil was inhabited by slaves and slaveowners once slavery was abolished this separation between Afro-Brazilian (darker skin ppl) and the whiter slave owners still is apparent to this day.
4.1.2. Domestic workers such as Gloria usually came from families that were once slaves. So they grew up in the domestic worker atmosphere. Throughout time the line between middle and lower class grew more divided.
4.1.2.1. The site of domestic worker and employer relations is really a sight of class formation and differentiation.
4.1.2.2. "Middle-class wages vary greatly, but even the lowest wage for single middle-class person isn't enough for a living wage it is more of a subsistence wage. In Gloria's case not enough for food, clothing, etc. for her family.
4.1.3. In Rio the reform for public and private spaces created a perfect living condition for the working class (wealthy) while the Afro-Brazilian culture was pushed out to Zona Norte or on the hillside favelas.
4.2. Color-Blind Erotic Democracies, Black Consciousness Politics and the Black Cinderellas of Feliciade Eterna
4.2.1. Racism in Brazil was subtly manifested in the courts and difficult to address. Brazilians embrace mesticagem: the reputed historical blending of the indigenous American. Iberian, and Africans peoples into a single national identity,
4.2.1.1. Brasil vs. USA. In the USA racism was fought against and it liberated multiples of people. In Brasil there are no legal sanctions as with the USA. However the racism is still apparent in the humor and everyday living of people.
4.2.2. Blackness, dark skin color and African features are associated with slavery and are considered ugly.
4.2.3. The Black Cinderella aka Ana Flavia Pecanha Azeredo
4.2.3.1. Filed a racial discrimination suit against people in a middle class apartment building who verbally and physically assaulted her for assuming she was preta e pobre black and poor
4.2.4. Brazil's erotic side has been celebrated through such parties as Carnival . A "Love affair" of interracial sexuality is promoted in at Carnival.
4.2.4.1. "Multa" a darker skinned sexy brazilian woman.
5. Chapter 4 & 5
5.1. No Time for Childhood
5.1.1. Gloria's first born son Pedro Paulo has a 15 year prison sentence for armed robbery of two apartments in Rio. The trip to get to the prison is a lengthy one involving bus and boat to the island. Once there you have to wait hours where they search everything even strip search people.
5.1.2. Why do most Brazilian kids from lower class families tend to become marginal or criminals? This is because the kids exhibit a love for "the streets" and they attribute the anger inside of them towards others; and enter gangs like the FUNABEM. These kids end up turning in to Pedro Paulo and in prison.
5.1.3. The trend for middle and upper class families in Brazil has been to move behind higher walls to protect themselves from the growing violence on the streets.
5.1.4. Many Brazilian children are in danger of this gun violence that is running rampant in the city. There has been numerous shooting one "hooded member of a death squad killed several homeless boys and wounded other." This is a horrible epidemic that is sweeping the streets of Brazil.
5.1.4.1. These street children are vital to the economy in rural Brazil they essentially do the dirty work for cheap. Also many kids tend to do the dirty work for gangs resulting in them being drafted.
5.1.5. The life of a child in Brazil is either going to school to get an education as Gloria was trying to do with her family; or the kids dropping out of school to join the street kids.
5.2. State Terror, Gangs, & Everyday Violence In Rio de Janeiro
5.2.1. Because death and terror are common in Felicidade Eterna and the shantytowns there is a common phrase used boca fechada literally meaning a closed mouth, silence. This "law of silence" is used to deal with a gang death which if talked about can easily provoke another one.
5.2.2. "Rio-quintessential Brazil- is one of the most unequal cities in the world, and crime and violence in their many forms are experienced and commented upon across vast divisions of class." Middle and upper class families also talk about crime; mostly because they are the one experiencing the most crime and violence.
5.2.3. Middle class and elite drug consumption and the international drug trade fueled gang activity in the favelas.
5.2.3.1. Many gang members decide to join a gang mostly because of their anger against the wealthy bacanas or elites and the injustice of the system they live in.
5.2.4. The presence of gangs in the favelas has provided legal and moral justification for the governments use of excessive force. This is seen when the military police try to seize drugs and capture drug lords and stop international trade. Ex. Operation Rio
5.2.5. Revenge practices are common in the favelas and if a person needs a "hit" done they call upon a gang to fulfill that need. As with Adriana Gloria's neighbor she was caught cheating thus the husband ordered a gang to beat up the other man. They did Adriana ran away so the gang followed and ended up raping her. The gang made this situation seem justifiable.