#assesement

Cosmopolitan Passport!

But wouldn't we have to experience "culture shock" to be able to adapt to it? It seems that you need "culture shocks" to become "cosmopolitan ", whereby you no longer feel the "shock", but a big question remains here, how much is enough?

Colorful carnaval.

Back to travel, I noticed that the tourism promotion was on the one hand "essentializing" Brazil for its carnavals, and more importantly for its love of football and on the other hand, it was trying to draw us to it and make us crave it! I guess that's the way it has to be in the industry but do we think about the host nation?

Football fever in Brazil.

Commodification of the host nation, is indeed promoting consumerism which, in reality, is the core of our everyday life. We have turned into subjects of manipulation of these advertisements, including tourism ones, and it's these "fantasized and polished" representations which build up our expectations of the place and in turn lead into "culture shock" or "confusion" later.

Host nation commodification.

Conclusion:

When in Brazil, you might find many things odd and unfamiliar, but something you might find more disturbing is the commonality of plastic surgeries in Brazil. As I alluded to in my previous blog post, Brazil has the second highest rate of plastic surgery after USA. This reflects the fact that Brazilians are very "body conscious".

Planning something?!

Hard job, plastic surgery huh?!

 Something that you might find confronting in Brazil, is that you can clearly see people who have done it in the street!  What is more interesting is that they tend to talk about it as opposed to Westerners who try to make it as private as possible. 

Common Brazilian gathering!

Keeping my privacy!

The most confronting experience would probably be a situation where a Brazilian truthfully and overtly forward gives you their opinion on your body and suggests you what "things" you need to get done!

Don't be offended please, I'm honest!

I guess it seems reasonable to be a bit receptive of their comments and now that we are aware of this, we should react more sensibly. Don't be offended by it because it's part of their culture and always remember, it is us who are the foreigners not them. Probably all we could do is to smile and ignore the comment politely!

Don't worry, I don't mind!

Conclusion:

Technically, the term culture shock doesn't apply to our short-term travels abroad however we can "assume" it does! It is due to confrontation with a different way of life and culture foreign to us. The best way to cope with it is to adapt, right!! Maybe if you're cosmopolitan you can adapt better! As we travel, we need to keep differences in cultures in mind and sometimes we might not even experience this confusion because after all, we travel to see and experience new things for a relatively short time.

The center of a Brazilwood log has a characteristic color, which was used to extract a highly profitable red dye. This dye was then used in manufacture of luxury textiles, such as velvet, which was in high demand during the Renaissance.

Red dye extracted from Brazilwood, also used in hematoxylin for histology.

Brazilwood is a historic timber tree which was a major source of profit for early  Portuguese colonies settled in Brazil. They used to call it pau-Brasil (Latin for wood red like an ember), which is how Brazil got its name!

French cutting brazilwood.

Nevertheless, some believe that Brazil is a shortened version of “terra do brasil” or “land of brazilwood”.

1519 map of the coast of Brazil, showing the harvesting of brazilwood.

Brazilwood was a major source of commerce in Brazil and attracted many Europeans, especially Dutch and French. French were successful in establishing a colony which was known as "France Antarctique". It existed between 1555 and 1567 and was later destroyed by Portuguese.

Map of France Antarctique in the Guanabara Bay, 1555.

In order to make profit out of brazilwood, settlers tried to enslave the natives, However, this couldn't work as the natives either escaped or died from foreign diseases in captivity. Later slaves were imported from Africa to do the labor who then became a substantial section of Brazilian population.

African slaves being watched by Portuguese.

 Conclusion: 

On the one hand, brazilwood is associated with wealth among most Europeans and privateers who came to Brazil for wealth. On the other hand, brazilwood wouldn't mean the same for those African slaves who were exploited.

More importantly for the Brazilians, commercial boom created by brazilwood, was their first encounter with Europeans who exploited their ancestors and natural resources of this country. As travelers, we should be sensitive of host country's history and seek different sides of the story and respect different connotations of places.