Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Patterns of Racial and Educational Assortative Mating in Brazil

  • Published:
Demography

Abstract

Exchange of racial for educational status has been documented for black/white marriages in the United States. Exchange may be an idiosyncratic feature of U.S. society, resulting from unusually strong racial boundaries historically developed there. We examine status exchange across racial lines in Brazil. In contrast to the United States, Brazil features greater fluidity of racial boundaries and a middle tier of “brown” individuals. If exchange is contingent on strong racial boundaries, it should be weak or non-existent in Brazilian society. Contrary to this expectation, we find strong evidence of status exchange. However, this pattern results from a generalized penalty for darkness, which induces a negative association between higher education and marrying darker spouses (“market exchange”) rather than from a direct trading of resources by partners (“dyadic exchange”). The substantive and methodological distinction between market and dyadic exchange helps clarify and integrate prior findings in the status exchange literature.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Following Telles (2004), we define interracial sociability as the ease and frequency of social interaction across racial boundaries.

  2. We use the terms lightness and darkness to indicate positioning on a graduated scale of racial categories that separate white from black at the extremes, not as a direct reference to skin tone, for which we have no direct data.

  3. For two groups B and W, where F ij gives the number of married couples where the husband belongs to group i and the wife belongs to group j, the odds ratio of exogamy is calculated as F BW × F WB   / (F BB × F WW ).

  4. Our approach uses difference coding, in which the estimated parameters give the differences between adjacent pairs on an ordinal scale variable. This approach differs from the more common dummy variable coding, which sets one category as the reference for all comparisons. Difference coding is preferred because it allows direct evaluation of the effects of a one-level increase in education for each particular level. There is no difference between the coding schemes in terms of model fit because the estimated parameters of one technique can easily be derived from the other.

References

  • Arias, O., Yamada, G., & Tejerina, L. (2004). Education, family background and racial earning inequality in Brazil. International Journal of Manpower, 25, 355–374.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bailey, S. R. (2009). Legacies of race: Identities, attitudes, and politics in Brazil. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bailey, S. R., Loveman, M., & Muniz, J. (2013). Measures of “race” and the analysis of racial inequality in Brazil. Social Science Research, 42, 106–119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bernard, J. (1966). Note on educational homogamy in Negro-white and white-Negro marriages, 1960. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 28, 274–276.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonilla-Silva, E. (2004). From bi-racial to tri-racial: Towards a new system of racial stratification in the USA. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 27, 931–950.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burdick, J. (1998). Blessed Anastacia: Women, race, and popular Christianity in Brazil. London, UK: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Choi, K., Tienda, M., Cobb-Clark, D., & Sinning, M. (2012). Immigration and status exchange in Australia and the US. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 30(1), 49–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, F. J. (1991). Who is black? One nation’s definition. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.

  • Davis, K. (1941). Intermarriage in caste societies. American Anthropologist, 43, 376–395.

  • Degler, C. N. (1971). Neither black nor white: Slavery and race relations in Brazil and the United States. New York, NY: MacMillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fu, V. K. (2001). Racial intermarriage pairings. Demography, 38, 147–159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gordon, M. M. (1964). Assimilation in American life. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gullickson, A. (2006). Education and black/white interracial marriage. Demography, 43, 673–689.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gullickson, A., & Fu, V. K. (2010). Comment: An endorsement of exchange theory in mate selection. American Journal of Sociology, 115, 1243–1251.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harris, M. (1956). Town and country in Brazil. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heer, D. M. (1974). The prevalence of black-white marriage in the United States, 1960 and 1970. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 36, 246–248.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hou, F., & Myles, J. (2013). Interracial marriage and status-caste exchange in Canada and the United States. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 36, 75–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hwang, S.-S., Saenz, R., & Aguirre, B. E. (1995). The SES selectivity of interracially married Asians. International Migration Review, 29, 469–491.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ianni, O. (1960). Segunda parte [Second part]. In F. H. Cardoso & O. Ianni (Eds.), Côr e mobilidade social em Florianópolis [Color and social mobility in Florianopolis] (pp. 153–226). São Paulo, Brazil: Companhia Editora Nacional.

  • Kalmijn, M. (1993). Trends in black/white intermarriage. Social Forces, 72, 119–146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kalmijn, M. (1998). Intermarriage and homogamy: Causes, patterns, trends. Annual Review of Sociology, 24, 395–421.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kalmijn, M. (2010). Educational inequality, homogamy, and status exchange in black-white intermarriage: A comment on Rosenfeld. American Journal of Sociology, 115, 1252–1263.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kalmijn, M., & van Tubergen, F. (2006). Ethnic intermarriage in the Netherlands: Confirmations and refutations of accepted insights. European Journal of Population, 22, 371–397.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lieberson, S., & Waters, M. C. (1988). From many strands: Ethnic and racial groups in contemporary America. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lovell, P., & Wood, C. H. (1998). Skin color, racial identity, and life chances in Brazil. Latin American Perspectives, 25, 90–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lovell, P. A. (1999). Development and the persistence of racial inequality in Brazil: 1950–1991. The Journal of Developing Areas, 33, 395–418.

  • Loveman, M. (2009). The race to progress: Census-taking and nation-making in Brazil 1870–1920. Hispanic American Historical Review, 89, 435–470.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loveman, M., Muniz, J. O., & Bailey, S. (2012). Brazil in black and white? Race categories, the census, and the study of inequality. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 35, 1466–1483.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marteleto, L. J. (2012). Educational inequality by race in Brazil, 1982–2007: Structural changes and shifts in racial classification. Demography, 49, 337–358.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Merton, R. K. (1941). Intermarriage and the social structure: Fact and theory. Psychiatry, 4, 361–374.

    Google Scholar 

  • Model, S., & Fisher, G. (2002). Unions between blacks and whites: England and the US compared. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 25, 728–754.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Model, S., Fisher, G., & Silberman, R. (1999). Black Caribbeans in comparative perspective. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 25, 187–212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Monahan, T. P. (1976). An overview of statistics on interracial marriage in the United States, with data on its extent from 1963–1970. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 38, 223–231.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nobles, M. (2000). Shades of citizenship: Race and the census in modern politics. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Noymer, A., Penner, A. M., & Saperstein, A. (2011). Cause of death affects racial classification on death certificates. PLoS ONE, 6(1), e15812. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0015812

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Qian, Z. (1997). Breaking the racial barriers: Variations in interracial marriage between 1980 and 1990. Demography, 34, 263–276.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reichmann, R. L. (1999). Race in contemporary Brazil: From indifference to inequality. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ribeiro, C. C., & Silva, N. D. (2009). Cor, educação e casamento: Tendências da seletividade marital no Brasil, 1960 a 2000 [Color, education and marriage: Trends in marital selectivity 1960–2000]. Dados, 52, 7–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenfeld, M. J. (2005). A critique of exchange theory in mate selection. American Journal of Sociology, 110, 1284–1325.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenfeld, M. J. (2008). Racial, educational, and religious endogamy in the United States: A comparative historical perspective. Social Forces, 87, 1–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenfeld, M. J. (2010). Still weak support for status-caste exchange: A reply to critics. American Journal of Sociology, 115, 1264–1276.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saperstein, A., & Penner, A. (2012). Racial fluidity and inequality in the United States. American Journal of Sociology, 118, 676–727.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schoen, R., & Cheng, Y.-H. A. (2006). Partner choice and the differential retreat from marriage. Journal of Marriage and Family, 68, 1–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schoen, R., & Wooldredge, J. (1989). Marriage choices in North Carolina and Virginia, 1969–71 and 1979–81. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 51, 465–481.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz, C. R., & Mare, R. D. (2005). Trends in educational assortative marriage from 1940 to 2003. Demography, 42, 621–646.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwartzman, L. F. (2007). Does money whiten? Intergenerational changes in racial classification in Brazil. American Sociological Review, 72, 940–968.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silva, N. V. (1985). Updating the cost of not being white in Brazil. In P.-M. Fontaine (Ed.), Race, class, and power in Brazil (pp. 42–55). Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Center for Afro-American Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silva, N. V., & Hasenbalg, C. A. (1999). Race and educational opportunity in Brazil. In R. Reichmann (Ed.), Race in contemporary Brazil: From indifference to inequality (pp. 53–65). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skidmore, T. E. (1974). Black into white: Race and nationality in Brazilian thought. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Telles, E. E. (1995). Race, class, and space in Brazilian cities. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 19, 395–406.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Telles, E. E. (2004). Race in another America: The significance of skin color in Brazil. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Telles, E. E., & Lim, N. (1998). Does it matter who answers the race question? Racial classification and income inequality in Brazil. Demography, 35, 465–474.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Telles, E. E., & Sue, C. A. (2009). Race mixture: Boundary crossing in comparative perspective. Annual Review of Sociology, 35, 129–146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Twine, F. W. (1998). Racism in a racial democracy: The maintenance of white supremacy in Brazil. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williamson, J. (1980). New people: Miscegenation and mulattoes in the United States. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolfe, P. (2001). Land, labor, and difference: Elementary structures of race. The American Historical Review, 106, 866–905.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This article uses data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, International (IPUMS-I). We thank the Minnesota Population Center and the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics for making the data available. We are grateful to Matthijs Kalmijn for generously providing us with the code to replicate his model of status exchange. We thank Demography anonymous reviewers, Patricia Gwartney, Jill Harrison, Ryan Light, Matthew Norton, Eileen Otis, Jiannbin Shiao, Jessica Vasquez, and especially Paula England for helpful comments and suggestions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sociology Department, University of Oregon, 719 Prince Lucien Campbell Hall, Eugene, OR, 97403, USA

    Aaron Gullickson

  2. Department of Sociology, New York University, 295 Lafayette Street, No. 4129, New York, NY, 10012, USA

    Florencia Torche

Authors
  1. Aaron Gullickson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Florencia Torche
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Aaron Gullickson or Florencia Torche.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Online Resource 1

(DOCX 1231 kb)

Online Resource 2

(DOCX 187 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gullickson, A., Torche, F. Patterns of Racial and Educational Assortative Mating in Brazil. Demography 51, 835–856 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-014-0300-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-014-0300-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation