Brazilian Culture

Culture

Brazilian culture is a Latin American culture of a very diverse nature. It's main influence comes from Portuguese, due to colonial ties with the Portuguese empire that spread the Portuguese language, legal system and other cultural inheritances. Other important influences came from African and Amerindian people creating a diverse multicultural and multiethnic society.

Religion in Brazil is very diverse, about ninety percent of Brazilians declare some sort of religious affiliation. Roman Catholics make up the bulk with over seventy percent of the population. Brazil has a large number of Jehovah's Witnesses and Latter-day Saints. Among the field of other religions were Buddhists, Jewish people and Muslims. In the same field were those who practice a mixture of different religions, such as Catholicism, Candomble, and other American religions

Portuguese is the official language of Brazil. It is spoken by nearly the entire population and is mainly the only language used in schools, newspapers, radio and TV. Brazil is the only Portuguese-speaking nation in the Americas. However, many minority languages are spoken daily throughout the vast national territory of Brazil. Some of these are spoken by native people. Others yet are spoken by people who are for the most part bilingual. Brazilian Portuguese has had its own development. It was influenced by the Amerindian and African languages. Due to it, the language is somewhat different from that spoken in Portugal and other Portuguese-speaking countries, mainly for grammatical differences.

The 1988 Brazilian Constitution states that "education" is "a right for all, a duty of the State and of the family, and is to be promoted with the collaboration of society, with the objective of fully developing the person, preparing the individual for the exercise of citizenship and qualifying him/her for work". The Federal Government, through the Ministry of Education, defines the guiding principals for the organization of educational programs, but does not establish such programs. Local governments are responsible for establishing local educational programs following the guidelines and using the funding supplied by the Federal Government.

Education is divided into three levels, with several grades in each division. Fundamental education is free for everyone, and mandatory for children between the ages of 6-14. Secondary education is also free, but it is not mandatory. Higher education is free at public universities. Infantile Education is entirely optional, and exists to aid in the development of children under 7. It aims to assist in all