Anthropology, Education and Multicultural State

notes on the Brazilian educational system in face of a multicultural society

Abstract

The end of the 1990s was marked by an explosion of debates around the recognition of cultural diversity in Brazil. This effect is the result of the constitutional recognition of the country as multicultural and multiethnic State. This debate has emerged a dialogue between two areas of knowledge - anthropology and education - introducing a discussion on the recognition of cultural diversity in Brazil, and the school as an institution which is responsible for promoting it. It is, therefore, on this process that we have studied through this essay to try to show how this has been set up over the years. This discussion was combined with empirical data collected in a public school in Boa Vista Roraima, with a significant presence of students from different indigenous ethnicity. We conclude that legal instruments are not sufficient to accomplish the respect and recognition of the pluralistic character of Brazilian society and that the homogenized conception prevails in the school context, even where diversity is shown explicitly.