Interethnic relations, ambiguity and unfinishment

Abstract

This article tries to analyze the process of (re)construction of identities, starting from concrete dimensions of the relations between nipo-Brazilians and non-nipo-Brazilians. Based on testimonies, the article verifies that the relation between nipo-Brazilians and non-nipo-Brazilians in the familiar, religious and sportive fields is an important sign of a reality that goes beyond processes of social mobility, in which the economic dimension of the analyses was prioritized. The reports here presented reveals that the analyzed relations are connected to a more complex reality, in what it concerns to tastes, habits, ethical, moral and aesthetic values, representations about work, family, etc. Such relations are linked to exchanges that cannot be apprehended and understood by the concept of assimilation, once they don’t result from the unilateral and homogeneous absorption: it is a process that produces ambiguous and continually reconstructed identities.