In this article we argue that Caio Prado Júnior’s main work sets a clear sense of hierarchy of cultures in order to interpret Brazil. In this interpretive framework, Western culture takes leadership over historical transformations. In contrast, the non-Western cultures of Brazilian colonial matrix (African and Amerindian) are considered to play a minor role in the nation-building of modern Brazil. We intend to show that, according to the book Formação do Brasil contemporâneo , Brazil would only become a modern nation through a process of cultural westernization.
Caio Prado Jr; Racism, Modernity; Colonialism; Progress