Changing Intergroup Boundaries in Brazilian Marriages: 1991-2000

Tim B. Heaton, Brigham Young University

Using data from the 1991 and 2000 Censuses of Brazil, this paper examines change in educational, racial and religious intermarriage. Different perspectives on social change make different predictions regarding shifts in the magnitude of marital homogamy within these three social characteristics. Racial homogamy is less pronounced in Brazil than in a variety of other contexts, educational homogamy is comparable to that reported in the United States, and religious homogamy is much more pronounced than either educational or racial homogamy. The most common pattern of social change is increased fluidity in mate selection. Homogamy parameters are becoming smaller for race, education and religion, but the pattern of change is not uniform. Boundaries appear to be increasing at the two tails of the education distribution and for some religious categories.