Skin colour and race as analytic concepts

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Notes

1. Preto (black) is a term used in the Brazilian census by people who do not consider themselves pardo (brown) or branco (white). Negro (black) is a term often seen as a pejorative way of referring to dark-skinned people, but also used in recent decades as a self-conscious political identity term. A recent study shows something similar to previous findings in an exchange between the anthropologist and an interviewee: Anthropologist: ‘So, saying negro and saying preto is the same?’ Interviewee: ‘It's different because preto is the colour [she rubs the skin of her arm] while negro is the race [she passes her hand close to her face as if to refer to facial features].’ Anthropologist: ‘But what is race?’ Interviewee: ‘Race is race. It's your … origin [pointing at her face again]’ (Cicalo 2012, forthcoming).

2. See www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/disciplines/socialanthropology/research/rgm/