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Rio is known for its culture of ambiguity. Another classic is "let's get together sometimes" (which means "dude, I totally don't hate you so let's be on each o

Rio is known for its culture of ambiguity. Another classic is "let's get together sometimes" (which means "dude, I totally don't hate you so let's be on each other's background social circle but never get together sometimes"). And its friendlier varient "come by my home sometimes to visit". (Don't go. It means they like you, but just don't show up unannounced). Everyone is on about how São Paulo is much more businesslike than Rio (it is, but the ambiguous social norms of Rio don't bleed over the worlplace that much), but I think the main difference is how these cultures treat friendship. In São Paulo friendship is very binary. People are strangers and sort of hostile by default, but once you make into their friend circle you might as well be family. Cariocas are friendly in a broad general fashion but have very very few true friends you can count on, visit unannounced, ask for help moving, etc. This accounts for a lot of social customs re: parties and such. Cariocas are just more fluid.

drukenemo 8y ago
Have you ever heard of the coconut vs peach theory? https://x-culture.org/peach-vs-coconut-cultures/ https://x-culture.org/peach-vs-coconut-cultures/ Seems like cariocas are peach and paulistas (people from São Paulo) are coconut.
- thanatropism 8y ago
  It's a good metaphor. It's interesting that they would characterize Americans (at least those of an "international" style that study abroad or socialize with Brazilians) as peaches, though. My first impression with an American is typically "this is a very very honest person that will hold me to a high standard". This is maybe where the coconuts/peaches idea breaks: you can be someone who is "open" in the sense of having a Bayesian prior that people are generally good; but also be very quick to change their minds (unforgiving) and very literal (which is a kind of reactionary take on the ambiguity of superficial relationships). So the spectrum I want to draw is more like ambivalence-judgementalness. (I want to keep ranting about Joao Gilberto vs. Chet Baker as jazz-pop singers and how one uses dissonant x/9/11/13 chords as a way to open up interpretation on the underlying basic harmonic structure while the other uses the same extended chord-color palette to create smoother but definite harmonic structures.)

drukenemo 8y ago

Have you ever heard of the coconut vs peach theory? https://x-culture.org/peach-vs-coconut-cultures/ https://x-culture.org/peach-vs-coconut-cultures/ Seems like cariocas are peach and paulistas (people from São Paulo) are coconut.

thanatropism 8y ago
It's a good metaphor. It's interesting that they would characterize Americans (at least those of an "international" style that study abroad or socialize with Brazilians) as peaches, though. My first impression with an American is typically "this is a very very honest person that will hold me to a high standard". This is maybe where the coconuts/peaches idea breaks: you can be someone who is "open" in the sense of having a Bayesian prior that people are generally good; but also be very quick to change their minds (unforgiving) and very literal (which is a kind of reactionary take on the ambiguity of superficial relationships). So the spectrum I want to draw is more like ambivalence-judgementalness. (I want to keep ranting about Joao Gilberto vs. Chet Baker as jazz-pop singers and how one uses dissonant x/9/11/13 chords as a way to open up interpretation on the underlying basic harmonic structure while the other uses the same extended chord-color palette to create smoother but definite harmonic structures.)