Carnival

Although I am aware that Brazil is full of many different cultural backgrounds, I was still surprised to see the many different groups that participated in the Carnival Bahia. I was not aware that they identified themselves so strongly with their specific cultural groups. Interestingly enough, the African roots were common in both the video and article amongst the Latin American groups. Even though the Carnival celebrations from the article were very different in style and presentation from those of the video, they all had that underlying base of African traditions. So no matter how differently the people may represent their cultures, it was clear from the article and the video that they were all brought together by the deep roots of the African culture they share. The most fascinating part is the idea that any one country can be represented by so many groups of people who identify with very specific aspects of their culture and yet they all remain so connected by an underlying culture that comes out in their art, singing, dancing, and social expression.