The subject of this essay is the dilemmas of modernization such as viewed by Sérgio Buarque de Holanda and Edward C. Banfield in Raízes do Brasil and The moral basis of a backward society. The comparative analysis searches to elucidate the concepts of cordiality and amoral familism as stated by the authors. When referred to their own theoretical models, such concepts are described as expressions of private ethic traditions which are not compatible with the social ethos demanded for the entrance in the modern age. Within this scope, the conclusion is that Banfield's vision states that a private ethic tradition shall be annulled by the modernizing action, whereas Sérgio Buarque de Holanda seeks to reconcile them by setting a balance between tendencies which are apparently antagonistic.
Modernization; Cordiality; Amoral familism; Sérgio Buarque de Holanda; Edward C. Banfield