the planet. ERIC VAN BEMMEL Now he had this notion of mesticagem, or miscegenation we would say in English, usually the mixing, inter-marriage or sexual relations between different races.   He saw this as a positive and he said, in fact, Brazilians were made superior by mesticagem, how so? MARSHALL EAKIN He's taken the long view of history he, especially in his later years when he gets more carried away with this, he says look, civilisation emerged in East Asia and it moved to the Middle East, then eventually to Western Europe and next it's going to be the Americas and this will be our turn.  Essentially what he sees when he looks at racial mixture, it's not simply biological, it's also cultural.  So he makes the argument which is very persuasive that Brazilians, even those who have no racial mixture biologically, are culturally mixed.  It's this cultural mixture that produces all the creativity, the innovative nature of Brazilians, right down to the way they play football.  That this is what accounts for Carnaval and samba and the exuberance of Brazilian music and what's called the futebol arte, the beautiful game in soccer.  Freyre essentially says it's that cultural as well as that racial mixture is what makes Brazilians particularly distinct and what also makes them incredible creative. ERIC VAN BEMMEL And he referred to those activities yeah, the football and the Carnaval? MARSHALL EAKIN Yes, he has an enormous influence, by the 1940s, his notion of Brazilian national identity, in