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Abstract The world has gone through many changes since the beginning of Anthropology and during the current century we will see many other changes that are impossible to predict. This article discusses what sort of theories and methodologies Anthropology will have to develop in order to understand what is going on in the world today. One of the challenges of Anthropology will be both to remain committed to rights of the groups that represent cultural diversity and to the theoretical task of offering interpretations of the social phenomena with which the world is faced.

This article compares Brazilian and North American popular music. If focuses on the lyrics of songs composed mainly in the first half of the twentieth century when an intense process of national building was taking place in Brazil and the United States. Several of those compositions became classics. Those songs were and still are very popular because they echoed and continue to echo the social imaginary of both countries. It is for this reason that popular music is so crucial for the understanding of both societies.

During the early half of the twentieth century there was in Brazil a proliferation of songs which depicted this period's imaginary. Songs that made up the Brazilian Popular Music (MPB, Música Popular Brasileira) - name given to the ensemble of sambas, chorinhos and Carnival marchas for this period - foregrounded three themes: work, women, and money. Work is rejected, while malandragem is praised. Women are powerful, capable of either encouraging men to accomplish deeds on the streets because they are loved at home, or immobilizing them by betrayal. Money is worth less than love, but it is nonetheless a necessary good. Since it is difficult to earn enough from work, there is, at once, an increasing awareness of the importance of money and the proposal of magical solutions for minimizing its scarcity.

Mauss sous les Tropiques : amour, argent et réciprocité dans la musique populaire brésilienne La musique populaire offre un accès privilégié pour saisir les relations sociales et leurs représentations. Dans maintes sociétés, la majorité des compositeurs et producteurs de musique sont des hommes qui utilisent cette voie pour exprimer plus librement leurs sentiments personnels dans l'espace public. Ils chantent ainsi à propos de leurs faiblesses, de leurs peurs de la perte, de leurs sentiments envers les femmes. La musique populaire ne parle pourtant pas que de l'amour mais également de l'argent, du travail, des inégalités sociales et des relations entre les sexes. Cet article interroge la musique populaire brésilienne des années 1930, 1940 et 1950 sous l'angle du don et de l'amour.

ABSTRACT. From the 1930s, Brazil experienced a growing national centralisation and the construction of Brasilidade (Brazilianness). The military regime (1964–85) deepened centralisation and emphasised national identity, little space being left for regional identities. With the political opening and the redemocratisation of Brazil, starting at the end of the 1970s, the stress was on differences in a period in which Brazil had already achieved a high degree of integration. Identities were re‐created, among them that of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil, where a strong revival of gaúcho culture took place. The 1980s and 1990s were marked by a growing development of activities and disputes linked to the gaúcho tradition. In spite of the fact that Rio Grande do Sul is predominantly urban and industrialised, this process reached out to the state's rural past and the equestrian figure of the gaúcho.