Cultural societies, anonymous societies: distinction and massification in brazilian cultural economics (Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, 1890-1922)

This thesis analyzes the economic aspects of the financing and management of the Brazilian culture in the period 1890-1922 in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The argument is based on extensive survey of quantitative data extracted from primary sources from both Brazilian and international historical archives connected to the dynamics of initiatives, spaces and institutions of distinct artistic media music, theater, cinema and plastic arts. More than a simple gathering of data, the project here is to undertake a synthetic effort, focusing on the identification of economic macrofunctionalities in the world of culture in its different manifestations. In dialogue with the great names of the international cultural theory such as Pierre Bourdieu and Theodor Adorno, the research centers attentions in the identification and understanding of the action of two structuring social forces: massification and distinction. Related, diverging and mutually influential, these are the two central biases for the structuring of the Brazilian cultural circuits. The two forces will be present in various cultural activities of the period. The result of this complex interaction is a mosaic where socioeconomic distinction, elitism and the instrumentalization of culture for exclusionary purposes triumphs. (AU)