Race and the marriage market in Belo Horizonte : does race matter?

This thesis analyzes the processes and outcomes of the marriage market in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and how these processes and outcomes differ along racial lines. Due to Brazil's history of claiming the "racial democracy" myth, the importance of race in interpersonal relationships has been stifled in popular discourse. However, the racial democracy discourse has gendered, racial, and sexualized implications for interpersonal relationships. Using qualitative techniques I explore the coded ways in which women talk about race on the marriage market and their perceptions of matching couples through focus group data gathered in July 2006. I also utilize quantitative data from the 2002 Belo Horizonte Area Survey to provide a description of the outcomes of the marriage market in Belo Horizonte.