In
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, Pardo, ( or ) is an ethnic and skin color category used by the
Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) in the Brazilian censuses. The term "''pardo''" is a complex one, more commonly used to refer to Brazilians of mixed ethnic ancestries.
Pardo Brazilians represent a diverse range of skin colors and ethnic backgrounds with a skin tone darker than white and lighter than black. It can also be used for people from Asia with darker skin tones or other ethnicities with the same color.
The other categories are ''branco'' ("
white
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...
"), ''preto'' ("
black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...
"), ''
amarelo'' ("yellow", meaning
East Asia
East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both Geography, geographical and culture, ethno-cultural terms. The modern State (polity), states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. ...
ns), and ''indígena'' ("indigene" or "indigenous person", meaning
Amerindians
The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples.
Many Indigenous peoples of the Am ...
). The term was and is still popular in Brazil.
Definitions
According to
IBGE
The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics ( pt, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística; IBGE) is the agency responsible for official collection of statistical, geographic, cartographic, geodetic and environmental information ...
(Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), ''pardo'' is a broad classification that encompasses
Multiracial Brazilians such as ''
mulatos
(, ) is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese i ...
'' and ''
cafuzos'', as well as assimilated
Amerindians
The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples.
Many Indigenous peoples of the Am ...
known as ''
caboclo
A caboclo () is a person of mixed Indigenous Brazilian and European ancestry, or, less commonly, a culturally assimilated or detribalized person of full Amerindian descent. In Brazil, a ''caboclo'' generally refers to this specific type of '' ...
s'', mixed with
Southern Europeans or not. The term "pardo" was first used in a Brazilian
census in 1872. The following census, in 1890, replaced the word ''pardo'' by ''mestiço'' (that of mixed origins). The censuses of 1900 and 1920 did not ask about race, arguing that "the answers largely hid the truth".
In Brazil, the term ''pardo'' has had a general meaning
since the beginning of the Portuguese colonization. In the famous letter by
Pero Vaz de Caminha Pero may refer to:
* Pero (mythology), several personages in Greek mythology
** Pero (princess), daughter of Neleus
* Pero (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname Pero
* Pero language, a language of Nigeria
* Pero, Lombardy, ...
, for example, in which Brazil was first described by the Portuguese, the Native Americans were called "pardo": "Pardo, naked, without clothing".
A reading of colonial wills and testaments also shows it.
Diogo de Vasconcelos, a widely known historian from
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...
, mentions, for example, the story of Andresa de Castilhos. According to the information from the 18th century, Andresa de Castilhos was thus described: "I declare that Andresa de Castilhos, pardo woman ... has been freed ... is a descendant of the natives of the land ... I declare that Andresa de Castilhos is the daughter of a white man and a native woman".
The historian
Maria Leônia Chaves de Resende also explains that the word pardo was employed to name people with native ancestry or even Native Americans themselves: a Manoel, natural son of Ana carijó, was baptized as a 'pardo'; in
Campanha several Native Americans were classified as 'pardo'; the natives João Ferreira, Joana Rodriges and Andreza Pedrosa, for example, were named 'freed pardo'; a Damaso called himself 'freed pardo' of the 'native of the land'; etc.
[Gentios Brasílicos: Índios Coloniais em Minas Gerais Setecentista. Tese de Doutorado em História, IFCH-Unicamp, 2003, 401p; http://www.bibliotecadigital.unicamp.br/document/?code=vtls000295347 ]
According to Maria Leônia Chaves de Resende, the growth of the pardo population in Brazil includes the descendants of natives and not only those of African descent: "the growth of the 'pardo' segment had not only to do with the descendants of Africans, but also with the descendants of the natives, in particular the carijós and bastards, included in the condition of 'pardo'".
The American historian Muriel Nazzari specifically pointed out the "pardo" category absorbed those of Native American descent in São Paulo: "This paper seeks to demonstrate that, though many Indians and mestizos did migrate, those who remained in São Paulo came to be classified as pardos"
The question about race reappeared in the 1940 census. In this census, "pardo" was not given as an option, but if the answer was different from the options "white", "black" and "yellow", a horizontal line would be drawn into the "color" box. When the census data was tabulated, all responses with horizontal lines were collected into the single category of "pardo". The term "pardo" was not used as an option as an assurance to the public that census data would not be used for discriminatory purposes due to rising South European racist sentiment at the time.
In the 1950 census, "pardo" was actually added as a choice of answer.
This trend remains, with the exception of the 1970 census, which also did not ask about race.
[
The 20th century saw a large growth of the ''pardo'' population.][ In 1940, 21.2% of Brazilians were classified as ''pardos''. In 2000, they had increased to 38.5% of the population. This came only partially due to the continuous process of miscegenation. In the 20th century, a growing number of Brazilians who used to self-report as Black in earlier censuses chose to move to the Pardo category. Also a significant part of the population that used to self-report as white also moved to the Pardo category. This indicates not so much a changing of demographics but an evolution of perceptions and ideologies prevalent at each historical moment, and a growing racial and social awareness. Magnoli describes this phenomenon as the ''pardização'' ("pardoization") of Brazil.][
]
Ancestry
According to an autosomal DNA study (the autosomal study is about the sum of the ancestors of a person, unlike mtDNA or yDNA haplogroup studies, which cover only one single line), the "pardos" in Rio de Janeiro were found to be predominantly European, at roughly 70% (see table). The geneticist Sérgio Pena criticized foreign scholar Edward Telles for lumping "blacks" and "pardos" in the same category, given the predominantly European ancestry of the "pardos" throughout Brazil. According to him, "the autosomal genetic analysis that we have performed in non-related individuals from Rio de Janeiro shows that it does not make any sense to put "blacks" and "pardos" in the same category".[Do pensamento racial ao pensamento racional](_blank)
laboratoriogene.com.br
Another autosomal DNA study has confirmed that the European ancestry is dominant throughout in the Brazilian population, regardless of complexion, "pardos" included. "A new portrayal of each ethnic contribution to the DNA of Brazilians, obtained with samples from the five regions of the country, has indicated that, on average, European ancestors are responsible for nearly 80% of the genetic heritage of the population. The variation between the regions is small, with the possible exception of the South, where the European contribution reaches nearly 90%. The results, published by the scientific magazine 'American Journal of Human Biology' by a team from the Catholic University of Brasília, show that, in Brazil, physical indicators such as skin, eye, and hair color have little to do with the genetic ancestry of each person, as has been shown in previous studies". "Ancestry informative SNPs can be useful to estimate individual and population biogeographical ancestry. The Brazilian population is characterized by a genetic background of three parental populations (European, African, and Brazilian Native Amerindians) with a wide degree and diverse patterns of admixture. In this work we analyzed the information content of 28 ancestry-informative SNPs into multiplexed panels using three parental population sources (African, Amerindian, and European) to infer the genetic admixture in an urban sample of the five Brazilian geopolitical regions. The SNPs assigned apart the parental populations from each other and thus can be applied for ancestry estimation in a three hybrid admixed population. Data was used to infer genetic ancestry in Brazilians with an admixture model. Pairwise estimates of F(st) among the five Brazilian geopolitical regions suggested little genetic differentiation only between the South and the remaining regions. Estimates of ancestry results are consistent with the heterogeneous genetic profile of Brazilian population, ''with a major contribution of European ancestry (0.771) followed by African (0.143) and Amerindian contributions (0.085)''. The described multiplexed SNP panels can be useful tool for bio-anthropological studies but it can be mainly valuable to control for spurious results in genetic association studies in admixed populations." It is important to note that "the samples came from free of charge paternity test takers, thus as the researchers made it explicit: "the paternity tests were free of charge, the population samples involved people of variable socioeconomic strata, although ''likely to be leaning slightly towards the ‘‘pardo’’ group''".
According to another autosomal DNA study conducted on a school in the poor periphery of Rio de Janeiro the "pardos" there were found to be on average over 80% European, and the "whites" (who thought of themselves as "very mixed") were found out to carry very little Amerindian and/or African admixtures. "The results of the tests of genomic ancestry are quite different from the self-made estimates of European ancestry", say the researchers. In general, the test results showed that European ancestry is far more important than the students thought it would be. The "pardos" for example thought of themselves as 1/3 European, 1/3 African and 1/3 Amerindian before the tests, and yet their ancestry was determined to be at over 80% European.
An autosomal study from 2011 (with nearly almost 1000 samples from all over the country, "whites", "pardos" and "blacks") has also concluded that European ancestry is the predominant ancestry in Brazil, accounting for nearly 70% of the ancestry of the population. "In all regions studied, the European ancestry was predominant, with proportions ranging from 60.6% in the Northeast to 77.7% in the South". The "pardos" included were found to be predominantly European in ancestry on average. The 2011 autosomal study samples came from blood donors (the lowest classes constitute the great majority of blood donors in Brazil), and also public health institutions personnel and health students.
History
The formation of the Brazilian people is characterized by the mixing of whites, blacks and Indians.[Freyre, Gilberto. ''Casa-Grande e Senzala'', Edition. 51, 2006.] According to geneticist Sérgio Pena "''with the exception of immigrants of first or second generation, there is no Brazilian who does not carry a bit of African and Amerindian genetic''". "The correlation between color and genomic ancestry is imperfect: at the individual level one cannot safely predict the skin color of a person from his/her level of European, African and Amerindian ancestry nor the opposite. Regardless of their skin color, the overwhelming majority of Brazilians have a high degree of European ancestry. Also, regardless of their skin color, the overwhelming majority of Brazilians have a significant degree of African ancestry. Finally, most Brazilians have a significant and very uniform degree of Amerindian ancestry.
The high ancestral variability observed in whites and blacks suggests that each Brazilian has a singular and quite individual proportion of European, African and Amerindian ancestry in his/her mosaic genomes" (geneticist Sérgio Pena). The colonization of Brazil was characterized by a small proportion of women among the initial settlers.[RIBEIRO, Darcy. O Povo Brasileiro, Companhia de Bolso, fourth reprint, 2008 (2008).] As there was a male predominance in the European contingent present in Brazil, most sexual partner
Sexual partners are people who engage in sexual activity together. The sexual partners may be in a committed relationship, either on an exclusive basis or not, or engage in the sexual activity on a casual basis. They may be on intimate terms ...
s of those settlers were, initially, Amerindian or African women, and, later, mixed-race women.[ This sexual asymmetry is marked on the genetics of the Brazilian people, regardless of skin color: there is a predominance of European Y chromosomes, and of Amerindian and African MtDNA. Haplogroup frequencies do not determine phenotype nor admixture. They are very general genetic snapshots, primarily useful in examining past population group migratory patterns. Only autosomal DNA testing can reveal admixture structures, since it analyzes millions of alleles from both maternal and paternal sides. Contrary to yDNA or mtDNA, which are focused on one single lineage (paternal or maternal) the autosomal DNA studies profile the whole ancestry of a given individual, being more accurate in describing the complex patterns of ancestry in a given place. In the Brazilian "white" and "pardos" the autosomal ancestry (the sum of the ancestors of a given individual) tends to be largely European, with often a non-European mtDNA (which points to a non-European ancestor somewhere up the maternal line), which is explained by the women marrying newly arrived colonists, during the formation of the Brazilian people.
In the first century of colonization, there was interbreeding between Portuguese males and Amerindian females in Brazil. However, the Amerindian population was decimated by epidemics, wars and slavery.][ Since 1550, African slaves began to be brought to Brazil in large numbers. Miscegenation between Portuguese males and African females was common. European and Asiatic immigrants who came to Brazil in the 19th and 20th centuries (Portuguese, Italians, Spaniards, Germans, Arab, Japanese, etc.) also participated in the process. Among many of the immigrant groups in Brazil, there was a large predominance of men.
In all Brazilian regions European, African and Amerindian genetic markers are found in the local populations, even though the proportion of each varies from region to region and from individual to individual.] However most regions showed basically the same structure, a greater European contribution to the population, followed by African and Native American contributions: "Some people had the vision Brazil was a heterogeneous mosaic. ... Our study proves Brazil is a lot more integrated than some expected". Brazilian homogeneity is, therefore, greater within regions than between them:
An autosomal study from 2013, with nearly 1,300 samples from all of the Brazilian regions, found a pred. degree of European ancestry combined with African and Native American contributions, in varying degrees. 'Following an increasing North to South gradient, European ancestry was the most prevalent in all urban populations (with values up to 74%). The populations in the North consisted of a significant proportion of Native American ancestry that was about two times higher than the African contribution. Conversely, in the Northeast, Center-West and Southeast, African ancestry was the second most prevalent. At an intrapopulation level, all urban populations were highly admixed, and most of the variation in ancestry proportions was observed between individuals within each population rather than among population'.
A 2015 autosomal genetic study, which analyzed data of 25 studies of 38 different Brazilian populations concluded that European ancestry accounts for 62% of the heritage of the population, followed by the African (21%) and the Native American (17%). The European contribution is highest in Southern Brazil (77%), the African highest in Northeast Brazil (27%) and the Native American is the highest in Northern Brazil (32%).
Not all descendants of this mixture of peoples are included in the "pardo" category. Since racial classifications in Brazil are based on phenotype, rather than ancestry, a large part of the self-reported white population has African and Amerindian ancestors, as well as a great part of the Black population has large European and Native American contributions. Besides skin color, there are social factors that influence the racial classifications in Brazil, such as social class, wealth
Wealth is the abundance of valuable financial assets or physical possessions which can be converted into a form that can be used for transactions. This includes the core meaning as held in the originating Old English word , which is from an I ...
, racial prejudice and stigma of being Black, Mulatto or Amerindian.[
The following are the results for the different Brazilian censuses, since 1872:
]
Important or famous Pardo Brazilians
Politics
Racial classification in Brazil is very complex. According to africanologist Alberto da Costa e Silva, many mixed-race politicians were perceived as white due to being part of the elite, including presidents Nilo Peçanha
Nilo Procópio Peçanha (; 2 October 1867 – 31 March 1924) was a Brazilian politician who served as seventh president of Brazil. He was governor of Rio de Janeiro (1903–1906), then elected the fifth vice president of Brazil in 1906. He assu ...
, Rodrigues Alves
Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves, PC (; 7 July 1848 – 16 January 1919) was a Brazilian politician who first served as president of the Province of São Paulo in 1887, then as Treasury minister in the 1890s. Rodrigues Alves was elected the ...
, and Washington Luís
Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa (; 26 October 1869 – 4 August 1957) was a Brazilian politician who served as the 13th president of Brazil. Elected governor of São Paulo state in 1920 and president of Brazil in 1926, Washington Luís belonge ...
.[BEATTIE, Peter M. The Tribute of Blood: Army, Honor, Race, and Nation in Brazil, 1864–1945. Duke University Press, 2001](_blank)
, . pp. 7. (visited 3 September 2008)[GIFFIN, Donald W. The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 44, No. 3 (Aug., 1964), pp. 437–439](_blank)
Review of TINOCO, Brígido. A vida de Nilo Peçanha. Coleção Documentos Brasileiros, Livraria José Olympio Editora, RJ, 1962. (visited 3 September 2008) Another president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Fernando Henrique Cardoso (; born 18 June 1931), also known by his initials FHC (), is a Brazilian sociologist, professor and politician who served as the 34th president of Brazil from 1 January 1995 to 31 December 2002. He was the first Brazi ...
, also had some African ancestry and described himself as "slightly mulatto". He allegedly once said that he had "''a foot in the kitchen''" (a nod to 19th century Brazilian domestic slavery).
Since the end of the military dictatorship, the political participation of pardos has increased. Senator and presidential candidate Marina Silva
Maria Osmarina da Silva Vaz de Lima (born 8 February 1958) is a Brazilian politician and environmentalist. She is the founder and former spokeswoman for the Sustainability Network Party (REDE). During her political career, Silva served as a sen ...
is a descendant of Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
and black African
Black is a Racialization, racialized classification of people, usually a Politics, political and Human skin color, skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have ...
ancestors in both her maternal and paternal lines.
Arts and entertainment
Many important names of Brazilian literature are or have been pardos. Machado de Assis
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (), often known by his surnames as Machado de Assis, ''Machado,'' or ''Bruxo do Cosme Velho''Vainfas, p. 505. (21 June 1839 – 29 September 1908), was a pioneer Brazilian novelist, poet, playwright and short sto ...
, generally considered the most important Brazilian writer of fiction, was himself "pardo". Other remarkable writers include Lima Barreto
Afonso Henriques de Lima Barreto (13 May 1881 – 1 November 1922) was a Brazilian novelist and journalist. A major figure in Brazilian Pre-Modernism, he is famous for the novel '' Triste Fim de Policarpo Quaresma'', a bitter satire of the first ...
(a novelist, master of satire and sarcasm, and pioneer of social criticism); João Ubaldo Ribeiro
João Ubaldo Ribeiro (January 23, 1941 – July 18, 2014) was a Brazilian writer, journalist, screenwriter and professor. Several of his books and short stories have been turned into movies and TV series in Brazil. Ribeiro was a member of the B ...
(a novelist and short story writer); João do Rio
João do Rio was the pseudonym of the Brazilian journalist, short-story writer and playwright João Paulo Emílio Cristóvão dos Santos Coelho Barreto, a Brazilian author and journalist of African descent (August 5, 1881, Rio de Janeiro – Ju ...
(a journalist); and Paulo Leminski
Paulo Leminski Filho (August 24, 1944 – June 7, 1989) was a Brazilian writer, poet, translator, journalist, advertising professional, songwriter, literary critic, biographer, teacher and judoka. He was noted for his avant-garde work, an experim ...
(a poet).
Other remarkable artists include Father José Maurício Nunes Garcia (a baroque conductor and composer), and Aleijadinho
Antônio Francisco Lisboa ( or 1738 – 18 November 1814), better known as Aleijadinho (), was a sculptor, carver and architect of Colonial Brazil, noted for his works on and in various churches of Brazil. Little is known with certainty about his ...
(an outstanding sculptor and architect) attained high prestige as artists.
Examples of pardos in popular music include Chiquinha Gonzaga
Francisca Edwiges Neves Gonzaga, better known as Chiquinha Gonzaga (; October 17, 1847 – February 28, 1935) was a Brazilian composer, pianist and the first woman conductor in Brazil.
Chiquinha Gonzaga was the first pianist of "choro" and ...
and Lupicínio Rodrigues Lupicínio Rodrigues (Porto Alegre, September 16, 1914 – Porto Alegre, August 27, 1974) was a Brazilian singer and composer from Rio Grande do Sul. He was a prominent exponent of the samba-canção genre. He dubbed his own style, ''dor-de-cotovel ...
.
Pardos in soccer include Ronaldo, popularly dubbed "the phenomenon", is considered by experts and fans to be one of the greatest soccer players of all time.["Ronaldo, a phenomenon in every sense"](_blank)
FIFA.com. Retrieved 13 May 2013 Arthur Friedenreich, Ademir da Guia
Ademir da Guia (born 3 April 1942) is a retired professional footballer who played during the 1960s and 1970s for Palmeiras, a leading association football team in Brazil, where he is still regarded as one of the club's all-time best players. U ...
, Romário, Neymar
Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior (born 5 February 1992), known as Neymar, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain and the Brazil national team. A prolific goalscorer and renowned ...
are well known names in Brazilian soccer.
Important athletes in other sports include Serginho (volleyball), Thiago Monteiro and Teliana Pereira
Teliana Santos Pereira (born 20 July 1988) is a Brazilian former professional tennis player.
On 19 April 2015, she became the first Brazilian in 27 years to win a title on the WTA Tour, beating Yaroslava Shvedova in Bogotá 7–6, 6–1. She ...
(tennis), Felipe Lima and Guilherme Costa (swimming), Thiago Braz and Joaquim Cruz
Joaquim Carvalho Cruz (born March 12, 1963) is a Brazilian former middle-distance runner, winner of the 800 meters at the 1984 Summer Olympics. He is one of only five men to run the 800 metres in less than 1 minute, 42 seconds.
Biography
Cruz wa ...
(athletics), Alex Garcia (basketball), Yamaguchi Falcão and Esquiva Falcão (boxing), Rayssa Leal
Jhulia Rayssa Mendes Leal (born 4 January 2008) is a Brazilian skateboarder who won a silver medal in women’s street skateboarding at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Skateboarding career
Leal was born and lives in Imperatriz, the second largest cit ...
(skateboard), etc.
''Moreno''
In daily usage, Brazilians use the ambiguous term ''moreno'', a word that means "dark-skinned", "dark-haired", "tawny", "swarthy", "Brown" (when referring to people), "suntanned". ''Moreno'' is often used as an intermediate color category, similar to ''pardo'', but its meaning is significantly broader, including people who self-identify as black, white, Asian and Amerindian in the IBGE classification system. In a 1995 survey, 32% of the population self-identified as "moreno", with a further 6% self-identifying as "moreno claro" ("light brown"), and 7% self-identified as "pardo". Telles describes both classifications as "biologically invalid", but sociologically significant.[
]
Demographics
By region
The Brazilian regions by percent of ''pardo'' people.
2009 data:
*1) North
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''north ...
– 71.2% of ''pardos''
*2) Northeast – 62.7%
*3) Central-West – 50.6%
*4) Southeast
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
– 34.6%
*5) South – 17.3%
By state
According to IBGE's data for 2009, of the ten states with greatest percentual ''pardo'' population, five were in the North and five in the Northeast.
*1) Amazonas – 77.2%
*2) Pará
Pará is a state of Brazil, located in northern Brazil and traversed by the lower Amazon River. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas and Roraima. To the northwest are the borders of Guyana ...
– 72.6%
*3) Piauí – 69.9%
*4) Tocantins
Tocantins () is one of the 26 states of Brazil. It is the newest state, formed in 1988 and encompassing what had formerly been the northern two-fifths of the state of Goiás. Tocantins covers and had an estimated population of 1,496,880 in 20 ...
– 68.8%
*5) Maranhão
Maranhão () is a state in Brazil. Located in the country's Northeast Region, it has a population of about 7 million and an area of . Clockwise from north, it borders on the Atlantic Ocean for 2,243 km and the states of Piauí, Tocantins and ...
– 68.6%
*6) Alagoas
Alagoas (, ) is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil and is situated in the eastern part of the Northeast Region. It borders: Pernambuco (N and NW); Sergipe (S); Bahia (SW); and the Atlantic Ocean (E). Its capital is the city of Maceió. ...
– 67.7%
*7) Acre – 67.7%
*8) Sergipe
Sergipe (), officially State of Sergipe, is a state of Brazil. Located in the Northeast Region along the Atlantic coast of the country, Sergipe is the smallest state in Brazil by geographical area at , larger only than the Federal District. Serg ...
– 67.1%
*9) Amapá – 66.9%
*10) Ceará – 66.1%
Between 2000 and 2010, the states of Goiás
Goiás () is a Brazilian state located in the Center-West region. Goiás borders the Federal District and the states of (from north clockwise) Tocantins, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso. The state capital is Goi ...
, Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...
and Espírito Santo
Espírito Santo (, , ; ) is a state in southeastern Brazil. Its capital is Vitória, and its largest city is Serra. With an extensive coastline, the state hosts some of the country's main ports, and its beaches are significant tourist attra ...
, together with the Federal District
A federal district is a type of administrative division of a federation, usually under the direct control of a federal government and organized sometimes with a single municipal body. Federal districts often include capital districts, and they ...
moved to the group of majority nonwhite states, of which ''pardos'' are very likely to be the new majority if trends continue as they perform the greatest nonwhite group in all Brazilian states. The next to be minority-majority
A majority-minority or minority-majority area is a term used to refer to a subdivision in which one or more racial, ethnic, and/or religious minorities (relative to the whole country's population) make up a majority of the local population.
Term ...
is probably Mato Grosso do Sul (51.78% white), followed by Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...
(54.25% white). The four southernmost states were all >70% white in the 20th century, nevertheless in the last 2010 census São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...
turned to be almost exactly 70.0% white, and according to the contemporary demographic trends it is likely to be less than 70% now.
It should be pointed out that self-identification and ancestry don't correlate well in Brazil. A predominantly self-identified "pardo" state like Goiás
Goiás () is a Brazilian state located in the Center-West region. Goiás borders the Federal District and the states of (from north clockwise) Tocantins, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso. The state capital is Goi ...
turned out to be mostly European in ancestry according to an autosomal study from the UnB undertaken in 2008. According to that study, the ancestral composition of Goiás is 83,70% European, 13,30% African and 3,0% Native American.
In Fortaleza, for example, both "whites" and "pardos" displayed a similar ancestral composition, according to a 2011 autosomal study: a predominant degree of European ancestry (>70%) was found out, with minor but important African and Native American contributions.
By municipality
IBGE's data for 2000. Of the ten municipalities with the greatest percentual ''pardo'' population, eight were in the Northeast and two in the North.
*1) Nossa Senhora das Dores (Sergipe) – 98.16% of ''pardos''
*2) Santo Inácio do Piauí (Piauí) – 96.90%
*3) Boa Vista do Ramos (Amazonas) – 92.40%
*4) Belágua (Maranhão) – 90.85%
*5) Itacuruba (Pernambuco) – 90.05%
*6) Monte Alegre de Sergipe (Sergipe) – 90.03%
*7) Pracuuba (Amapá) – 89.99%
*8) Ipubi
Ipubi is a city in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. The population in 2020, according with Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, IBGE was 31,187 inhabitants and the total area is 693.91 km².
Geography
* State - Pernambuco
* Regio ...
(Pernambuco) – 89.93%
*9) Floresta do Piauí (Piauí) – 89.37%
*10) Pinhão (Sergipe) – 87.51%
See also
*Amazonian Jews
Amazonian Jews ( pt, judeus da Amazônia; es, judíos de la Amazonia; he, יהודי האמזונס, translit=yehudei haAmazonas; lad, ג׳ודיוס די אמאזוניה, djudios de Amazonia) are the Jews of the Amazon basin, mainly descenda ...
*Caboclo
A caboclo () is a person of mixed Indigenous Brazilian and European ancestry, or, less commonly, a culturally assimilated or detribalized person of full Amerindian descent. In Brazil, a ''caboclo'' generally refers to this specific type of '' ...
s
*Mameluco
''Mameluco'' is a Portuguese word that denotes the first generation child of a European and an Amerindian. It corresponds to the Spanish word ''mestizo''.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, ''mameluco'' was also used to refer to organized bands of ...
s
*Mestiço
Mestiço is a Portuguese term that referred to persons born from a couple in which one was an aboriginal person and the other a European.
Mestiço community in Brazil
in Colonial Brazil, it was initially used to refer to , persons born from ...
s
*Mixed-race Brazilian
Brazilian censuses do not use a " multiracial" category. Instead, the censuses use skin colour categories. Most Brazilians of visibly mixed racial origins self-identify as pardos. However, many White Brazilians have distant non-white ancestry, w ...
s
* Cafuzos
* Kalungas
* Caiçaras
*Pardo
''Pardos'' (feminine ''pardas'') is a term used in the former Portuguese and Spanish colonies in the Americas to refer to the triracial descendants of Southern Europeans, Amerindians and West Africans. In some places they were defined as ne ...
References
{{Portuguese diaspora
African–Native American relations
Ethnonyms
Multiracial affairs in Brazil
Race in Brazil
Person of color