Brazil: Introduction

This entry explores Brazil's extensive legislation and practice on safeguarding cultural heritage: tangible (immovable and movable), intangible, underwater heritage, and intellectual property. A historical overview of the Federation in Brazil provides the context for introducing an arrangement that emphasizes federal laws in matters of shared legislative competence across multiple levels of the Federation, as for cultural heritage law. Constitutional provisions for cultural rights highlight the contribution of popular, Indigenous, and Afro-descendant cultures for constructing Brazilian national identity. Brazilian heritage law is highly diverse and creative, committed to the idiosyncrasies of Brazilian history and present agendas, but also closely aligned with and interested in international good practices in the field. We argue that, despite these commitments, the sheer volume of heritage legislation in Brazil calls for more systematization, so that these important pledges can live up to their full potential.