Some of the information above was given to me first-hand by Dr. Denny Moore from the Linguistic Division of the Museu Emi'lio Goeldi, Bele'm, PA, Brazil. The most important of these cultures is that of the Portuguese, from whom the Brazilians acquired their language, their religion and most of their traditional customs. The indian contribution to Brazilian culture is perhaps most apparent in the Amazon Basin. Evident in northern coastal regions are religious cults of African origin. African influence is also reflected in Brazilian popular music, especially in the rhythmic samba.
Brazil is a country that adapts readily to rapid changes and new opportunities.
Brazilian cultural life has been influenced by a series of intellectual movements since independence. A complex and vigorous group of poets novelists, short-story writers, literary critics and essayists are imparting to Brazilian literature an authenticity not so much of theme as of attitude. Here is a result of prenational and national development of Brazilian culture with its characteristic combination of cosmopolitanism and tropicalism. It embodies a tendency continuous from colonial days toward a genuine ethnic democracy - not imcompatible with an equally persistent tendency toward aristocracy of family, manners and spirit. A tipically romantic movement of the 19th century was Indianism, which emphasized Amerindian themes in art, music and literature.