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Data obtained from a study of social mobility in the Brazilian city of São Paulo are used to show how far there exist differences in mobility rates as between emmigrant and Brazilian-born sections of the adult population. The Index of Association, based upon a comparison of filial with parental status, while revealing in significant difference in mobility rates as between those of purely Brazilian and those of mixed origin, seems, however, to conceal other significant differences. Among male adults in São Paulo, the proportion rising in social status greatly exceeds those who fall-a phenomenon made possible by changes in the socio- economic structure of the city. A distinction must thus be made between exchange mobility and structural mobility, and a possible means of calculating the latter is suggested. An estimate of the degree to which the overall rate of social mobility observed in the city is due to structural change is offered, while further analysis shows that immigrants and their children profited more than cure Brazilians by the opportunities offered by structural change. It is suggested hat the process of immigrant assimilation is marked by an initially high rate social mobility which decreases in subsequent generations as their dispersion through the status scale gradually approximates the dispersion of the native population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data obtained from a random sample show that in São Paulo intermarriage between Brazilians and foreigners gradually increased from the onset of heavy foreign immigration in the 1870's up to the 1920's. Intermarriage occurs most frequently between Brazilians and those of Mediterranean origin, least so with Japanese. It is concluded that common cultural characteristics facilitate intermarriage and that it is doubtful whether, as Savorgnan suggests, Italian endogamy in the U.S.A. is attributable to the immigrant's poverty and lack of education. The rates of assimilation for immigrants of various origins shown by the index of homogamy resemble those suggested by G. Mortara's study of linguistic assimilation. Matrimonial selection and linguistic assimilation appear to be equally useful measures of immigrant absorption. Although there are differences in the rates of intermarriage between Brazilians and the various nationalities, the rate of intermarriage between the foreign-born and persons of any nationality other than their own is roughly constant, except in the case of the Japanese among whom exogamy is infrequent. The index of homogamy must, however, be used with caution as a guide to immigrant assimilation. In 40% of marriages of Brazilians with the foreign- born the nationality of all four parents was identical with that of the foreign spouse, especially in the case of Italians. Many legally mixed marriages are thus, sociologically or psychologically speaking, homogamous. Analysis of the social status of husbands in three types of marriage suggests that intermarriage tends to occur among immigrants who are rising in the social scale. This conclusion is consistent with recent sociological studies in São Paulo which show that intermarriage with a Brazilian may be a symbol of rejection of the primary immigrant group by the economically successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses some observations on the linguistic assimilation of immigrants and their descendants in Brazil. Language is the principal medium of civilizing influences, and the adoption by an immigrant family or its descendants of a local language as their main vehicle of communication, marks a decisive step towards their adaptation to a new social environment. The resistance to linguistic assimilation is weakest among Spaniards and Italians and pronounced among Germans and Japanese. The length and intensity of this resistance may be gauged by sub-dividing into generations those who speak these different alien tongues. Another comparative survey of mother-tongue survival, among immigrant settlers, is obtained by calculating the ratio of the number of those who continue to speak their native language for preference to the total number of immigrants in the country. It should be added that mother-tongue survival in immigrant communities, from one generation to the next, also depends largely on the state of education in the country where they choose to settle. An important cause of this phenomenon in Brazil is the dearth of local schools.

The article focuses on South U.S. immigrants in Brazil. The whole story begins a little before the civil war when the South became interested in the tropical countries of Central and South America. In fact, many Southerners thought that the American pioneering expansion should not turn itself exclusively to the west but should also project itself southward. It is common to think of a migration as a kind of jump. People start moving all of a sudden and do not have any clear idea about why they move and where they go. This is not true, at least, as far as the Southern migration to Brazil is concerned. These idealistic motives were even stronger in the elite who planned and led the movement, who got in touch with many Central and South American governments, and propagated their ideas. This elite group was composed of doctors, ministers, army and navy officers, planters, etc. They congregated in societies which financed inspection trips in the South American countries. Brazil was chosen among them because of the cultural traits it possessed in common with the Old South.

The article presents a study among the Bororo of Brazil in 1965-1967 to test another cultural group and to determine whether eidetic imagery is associated negatively with acculturation. The Bororo are a matrilineal people living in the western part of Mato Grosso, Brazil, and are now threatened with extinction. They are fishermen, hunters, and they also practice shifting agriculture. Two groups of Bororo were tested. The unacculturated one was in the village of Pobojari: the 39 subjects constituted 87 percent of the total population between the ages of 7 and 65. The relatively acculturated group was tested in the Catholic Mission of Meruri: of the 33 subjects, 10 females and nine males were children and constituted the entire child population between the ages of 7 and 15, the eight female and the six male adults were randomly selected from among the workers at the Mission. Mean schooling of this group was 2.0 years. This investigation uncovered some slight evidence favoring the hypothesis that eidetic imagery may be associated with nonliteracy or nonacculturation. It is not clear, however, why the phenomenon occurred among women and not among men in the village group.