understanding capoeira through cultural theories of the body .pdf

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Understanding Capoeira through Cultural Theories of the Body

Winning essay of the 2009 Graduate-level Baptista Essay Prize

by

Laurence Robitaille

Communication and Culture, York University

Baptista Prizewinning Essay

February 2010


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BAPTISTA PRIZEWINNING ESSAYS

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Understanding Capoeira through Cul-tural Theories of the Body

C apoeira is a kinaesthetic practicedeveloped by African slaves in colonialBrazil. It is at the same time a game, afight, a dance, a ritual, an art, even a phi-losophy. Due to its inception in slave cir-cles, it has a long history of marginality.After the abolition of slavery in 1888 ithas been declared illegal until the 1930s,when it was included in a consensual na-tional culture under populist presidentGetlio Vargas. From then on, capoeira

has contributed to celebrate Brazils Afri-can cultural heritage. In the past few dec-ades, capoeira has been exported all overthe world by Brazilians who managed tomake a living out of a practice that is stillrelatively stigmatized in their own country.Capoeiras circulation in transnationalnetworks has nevertheless given a re-newed value to the practice, which be-comes a new form of cultural capital bothfor its foreign practitioners and for Brazil

as a nation. As a cultural form now circu-lating transnationally, capoeira can be un-derstood simultaneously as a commodifiedproduct that is exchanged in a capitalistmarket and as the cement of a transna-tional community providing networks ofsolidarity and reciprocity for its partici-pants in a globalized world. What is more,the exportation of capoeira beyond theborders of Brazil generates a cross-culturalcontext where non-Brazilian practitioners

come into contact with a socio-culturallife strongly related to Brazil. Indeed, ca-poeira both the physical practice in andof itself and the immediate environmentsurrounding it remains in many waysclosely tied to its country of origin. Ca-poeira thus constitutes a complete culturalfield where diverse elements of Brazilianculture are communicated, shared and ex-

ported. Now, because capoeira is beforeall else a kinaesthetic practice, the bodyand its movements are central to this cir-culation of these meanings. Understand-ing capoeira thus requires a previous un-

derstanding of how the body as a culturalphenomenon can convey concrete culturalmeanings and values. This is why this pa-per sets out to review and assess diversetheories addressing the body in order tosee how these latter can help access andshed light on the diverse meanings circu-lating transnationally through capoeira;ultimately allowing an understanding ofthe specificities of Brazilian culture beingrepresented in the practice.

If traditionally, the study of thebody has been consigned to biological andmedical sciences, consequently excludedfrom the social sciences and humanities, itis now widely accepted that the body isalso a socio-cultural phenomenon asmuch as it is a fact of nature. The body isboth natural and cultural; it fluctuates andconstitutes an elusive object of study aswell as a malleable concept. In such a con-text, we inevitably and still constantly ask:

how should we study such a complex ob-ject and access its cultural meanings with-out disregarding the specificities of its ma-terial existence nor the commonality of itscondition? Dominant approaches in cul-tural studies would suggest that the body,performances and other embodied prac-tices should be read as cultural texts. Thebody itself is seen as a system of signsconstituting a bodily discourse. Althoughcompelling, this approach might also

sound paradoxical. Should we not pre-cisely develop new analytical tools adaptedto the body and its own knowledge? Thispaper examines both the value of seeingthe body as text and how such an ap-proach could be improved. It argues thatanthropology and dance studies offersome promising avenues to address andaccess the embodied knowledge that the

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body also entails. Ultimately, cultural stud-ies constitute a valid approach to help theresearcher address the body as the socio-cultural phenomenon that it is. Hence,without abandoning the textual approach

that they legitimately offer, this paper sug-gests they would benefit from a more bal-anced combination of semiotic analysisand embodied research.

In turn, this proposed combina-tion of approaches will prove to be par-ticularly relevant to address the specifici-ties of capoeira. Indeed, while textual ap-proaches can address the many stereo-types and representational meanings af-fixed on capoeira as it travels in the trans-

national cultural field, an attention to em-bodied knowledge can in turn help cir-cumvent one of the major difficulties instudying the practice: the aura of secrecyand deception that surrounds it as a con-sequence of its inception in the slave cir-cles. The marginal context in which thepractice was born has contributed to makeof capoeira an ambiguous form is it adance, a game, a fight, a ritual? and tomake capoeiristas, its practitioners, wary

of any outside intrusion that might con-tribute to the oppression they were tryingto resist. After all, capoeira is the art ofdeception and trickery and any researcherdealing with capoeiristas thus needs to beaware of the potential discrepancies be-tween what practitioners say and whatthey do, what they present capoeira to beand how they in turn enact and perform it.In sum, capoeira is as elusive an object ofstudy as the very body that is central to it.

This is why a combination of approachesis necessary to get at its conflicted andmalleable meanings.

The body as text: cultural narrativeson/of the body

In a nutshell, the textual approach in cul-tural studies stems from poststructuralists

such as Derrida and interpretive anthro-pologists such as Geertz, who considerculture itself as an ensemble of texts to beread (Schechner, 2002: 192). The task ofthe cultural analyst is to construct an in-

terpretation of said texts. Extended to thebody, this approach asks scholars to readthe body as a system of signs. Culturalcritic and dancer Jane Desmond (1997)suggests that just like we have developedtools to analyse written texts, we shoulddevelop a kinaesthetic semiotics thatwould allow reading the bodily discourse.This approach has been successful at re-vealing how bodies represent social cate-gories such as gender or race, for example,and how they are common receptacles of

social meanings (Desmond, 1997; Sklar,2000).

The body is indeed a privilegedspace where meanings, often stereotypes,are inscribed discursively. This social prac-tice can be understood by turning our at-tention to how the Black body has beensocially constructed and how the mean-ings attributed to it play out in manywidespread understandings of capoeira.

The historical conditions of slavery helpexplain, in great part, why Blacks1 havebeen equated with their bodies. From thishistorical condition, however, a whole se-ries of stereotypes have been affixed onthe Black body. Authors like Paul Gilroy(2000), Brenda Dixon Gottschild (2003)and bell hooks (1992) show that a dis-course of race has been affixed on thebodies of African and African diasporicpeople through a particular way of looking

at their bodies, a special gaze conveying1 Using the term Blacks is problematic for itseems to perpetuate the stereotypes it seeks to

address. However, I use it here to refer precisely

to the idea of the Black body that the social and

cultural discourse has created. This is why I al-

ways use it in inverted comas, especially when

the contexts make it problematically and indis-tinctively refer to a whole people.

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cultural meanings, but also by a fragmen-tation of the body and a focus on certainparts of that body. Dixon Gottschild elo-quently structures a whole section of herbookThe Black Dancing Bodywith chapters

titled Feet, Butt and Skin/Hair,showing how certain physical characteris-tics have become the siege of meaningsabout race and racial difference.

Common understandings andpopular representations of capoeira oftendraw on this conception of the Blackbody. The physical skills required to per-form the explosive movements of ca-poeira bring the body to the fore andseemingly naturally associate the art with

the physicality with which long lasting rac-ist tropes associate Black art forms. Theagility of capoeiristas moving bodies con-stantly associates capoeira with Blackphysicality. Now, representations of ca-poeira are all the more informed by theseracist narratives once capoeira is exportedand also practiced by White foreigners.In such a context, Black Afro-Braziliansand their bodies become the holders ofthe smooth quality of capoeiras move-

ments, while White practitioners strug-gle to make their stiff bodies move thesame way. These affirmations, of course,refer to the stereotypes and indeed showthe very binary way in which these work.Reading the body as a system of signs canaddress these powerful meanings embed-ded in fixed signifiers that are inscribedonto the body. Deconstructing the bodyand interpreting it as a problematic textcan indeed, as Bryan Turner argues, reveal

a fleshy discourse within which thepower relations in society can be both in-terpreted and sustained (1996: 27). Butone main pitfall of this approach alsostems from its very advantages. Indeed, asGilroy also argues, focusing on the bodyparts as signs might contribute to the at-tribution of essentialist meanings to them.Concentrating merely on the bodily signs

might contribute to fix and naturalizemeanings.

In order to move beyond thefixedness of stereotypes, it might be use-

ful, then, to examine not only the staticbody but also look at the body in move-ment. Early in the 20th century, anthro-pologist Marcel Mauss (2007 [1935]) wasalready suggesting that a body movement,a gesture, or indeed, a technique canconvey cultural, social, even nationalmeanings. More recently, dancer, choreog-rapher and scholar Susan Leigh Fostercoined the term bodily writing to ad-dress how bodies movements createa kindof writing that has no verbal equivalent

(1995: 9). Fosters bodily writing isclearly rooted in the bodys movements inand of themselves and grants the body theability to write its own narratives. The fol-lowing example can shed light on this ab-stract idea. One day, I was attending aninternational capoeira encounter in Spain,and when I saw one unknown capoeiristaplaying, I could tell without a doubt thathe was the student of one senior ca-poeirista I had met in Brazil. Somehow,

the whole genealogy of his capoeira train-ing was written on his body and, in turn,the way his body was moving conveyedhis whole capoeira history. This anecdotespeaks to the ability of the body inmovement to reveal precise and specificinformation.

The distinction between the fixedand moving body can now nuance ourunderstanding of stereotypes. As men-

tioned previously, the fragmented bodyslimbs read as signs can sometimes attrib-ute essentialist meanings to certain bodyparts and perpetuate [racial] stereotypes.In turn, these become powerful becausethey fix things (Hall, 1997; Root, 1998).That is why postcolonial thinker HomiBhabha (1994) insists that humans canescape or resist stereotypes by acting on

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and in the liminal and fluid spaces thatthey always inevitably contain. The bodyin movement helps the researcher movebeyond stereotypes and develop a morenuanced understanding of the processual

and performative dimensions of life aswell as the fluidity of meanings as positedby Bhabha. Moreover, focusing on thebodys movements can acknowledgeprocesses of training and physical educa-tion through which individuals acquire theskills and techniques that characterizetheir bodies. Acknowledging that certainbody features can be acquired unsettlesthe essentialist meanings fixed by stereo-types. We can now understand that someaspects of how Afro-Brazilians play ca-

poeira might not be essentially inscribedin their explosive muscularity (a commonstereotype affixed on the Black bodythat Dixon Gottschilds book, amongstother works, reveals) but might simply bedue to learned and acquired skills.

Reading the body as a system ofsign is thus a useful approach that can ac-count for the multiple social meaningsaffixed on the body. The stereotyped

meanings attributed to the Black body inturn influence the popular representationsof capoeira circulating globally, and read-ing these semiotically can help addresssome powerful assumptions about theBrazilian artform. However, the body isnot a mere receptacle for social meanings;it is also the producer of other types ofmeanings. There is a constant back andforth, in the study of the body, betweenseeing this latter as a container and/or as a

source of meanings (see, amongst others,Shilling, 2003). If the textual approachhelps getting at the representational mean-ings, we also need to recognize the mean-ings produced by the very own body. Forthis, we need to start moving our atten-tion from the body towards embodimentin order to access what is now recognizedas embodied knowledge.

Embodied knowledge, malandragem,and situated performances

One of the most direct solutions put for-

ward to account for embodiment is theexploration of the experiential body cen-tral to embodiment. A phenomenology ofthe perceived body, to borrow SusanLeigh Fosters (1997) term, recognizes thebody as a crucial source of meaning. Phe-nomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty(2002 [1945]) is a key figure whose workon perception suggests that existence isambiguous and full of discontinuities, andthat it can never be grasped entirely orwith absolute certainty. In this sense, he is

positioned against Descartess vision thatthe independent mind is able to establishtruths about the world. For him, thingsrather appear in consciousness throughthe bodys perceptual capacities. A phe-nomenological approach to capoeira isuseful to access the socio-cultural mean-ings that exceed the practice although theyare embedded and produced in it. In hisstudy on the experience of learning ca-poeira, anthropologist Greg Downey

(2005) draws on phenomenology to provethat perceptions can be trained and thatplaying capoeira can indeed produce cer-tain values, meanings and ideas in thepractitioners body. For example, he ex-plains that the process of learning, experi-encing and constantly performing the ba-sic capoeira step, called the ginga, instilsinto the capoeirista a knowledge that ex-ceeds the movement as such and concernsvalues, attitudes and strategies proper to

Brazils broader social life. He asserts:One becomes malicioso [a common per-sonality trait shared by capoeiristas] bydoing the ginga because to do the gingacorrectly, one must become more cun-ning, treacherous, playful, supple, artistic,quick witted, and aware of the body(131). Focusing on the actual bodily ex-perience that playing capoeira procures to

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the practitioner brings us closer to thevery knowledge produced, which can thenbe extrapolated and related to broadersocial contexts. Any research on the bodywould benefit from an attention to the

realm of perception that opens up withphenomenology.

But how are researchers to achievethat concretely? Here, anthropology mightprovide some promising methodologicalentries. A growing number of dance eth-nographies have raised attention to theimportance of reintroducing not only theabstract concept of the body, but moreprecisely, to reintroduce the researchersvery own body in the research process

(Browning, 1995; Ness, 1992; Novack,1990; Sklar, 2001). On the one hand, thisfocus on embodiment helps rectify an-thropologys visual bias as discussed byJames Clifford (1988). In his essay PartialTruths, Clifford points out that classicalanthropologists rarely accounted forsmells, sounds or perceptions, what hascreated the false impression that what onesees is true and contains all the informa-tion needed to interpret a situation. Em-

bodied research goes beyond the visualmarkers and attends to other channels ofknowledge. On the other hand, access toembodied knowledge through the re-searchers body can help reduce the gapbetween scholarly work and the studiedpractice. As Cynthia Novack (1990) co-gently relates, one day she had to go di-rectly from an academic conference to adance class: The contrast alerted me towhat was present or absent in each cir-

cumstance, enabling me to take at least apartly critical stance. I could not forget theabsence of body in academia, the stub-born denial of the physical self. Nor couldI become immune to the potentially prob-lematic skirting of sexual/emotionalboundaries in contact improvisation. (21)The researchers own involvement canhelp bridge, at least individually, the Car-

tesian dualism, for he/she becomes thesiege of both rational interpretations andembodied perceptions. Besides, as somehave already pointed out (Fraser andGreco, 2005; Foster, 1995), disembodi-

ment is most likely a powerful illusion forall ideas are always already embodied. Re-cent literature on the body and technolo-gies (Balsamo, 2007; Lupton, 2007; Stone,2007) has powerfully proved the resilienceof the body even in an increasingly virtualworld. We cannot escape our bodies, andpaying attention to the researchers bodyis not adding a new element to the re-search process, but merely acknowledgingsomething that has always been there.2

Here I would like insist on thebenefits of embodied research in the par-ticular case of capoeira by drawing atten-tion to a central feature of the game calledmalandragem. Inherently difficult to define,malandragem is, in the words of anthro-pologist Roberto DaMatta, the Brazilian

2When evoking a connection between phenome-

nology and embodied research, it seems neces-

sary to mention the insightful comments of

dance ethnographer Sally Ann Allen Ness (2004)who precisely qualifies the value of phenome-nology to address the cultural dimensions of

movement. Ness suggests that although the shift

towards what she calls participation-driven de-

scriptions what I have just referred to as em-bodied research might evoke phenomenology

as a supporting theoretical framework, the cul-

tural meanings they access might in fact come

from other factors of the research process;

namely, an attention to the embodied environ-ment, issues of execution of movements, rela-

tions of ones body with other surrounding bod-

ies, etc. many issues that will come up laterwhen we address performance studies theories.

Nesss account is good and valid to put nuances

in the invocation of phenomenology as an all

powerful means to study embodiment. However,

Ness does not disqualify phenomenology in andof itself. She clearly acknowledges phenomenol-

ogy as an important ground on which develop-

ments in embodied research have built, but fromwhich they have also somehow departed.

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art of using ambiguity as a tool for living(1991 [1979]: 64). This attitude finds itshistorical origin in the Afro-Brazilian cir-cles and is thus central to capoeira, but ithas slowly come to permeate many

spheres of Brazilian society, becoming oneof its main characteristics according toDaMatta. The anthropologists in depthanalysis of Brazilian social life sheds lighton malandragems close relationship to thevery structural functioning of the country.More specifically, I have also argued ex-tensively, in my Masters thesis (2007),how malandragem, capoeira and Braziliansociety are all closely related. There is nospace here to delve into the details of thisrelation; for now, I would nevertheless

like to underline that although malandragemdescribes an overall attitude and spirit ofcapoeiristas, practitioners generally defineit in extremely practical terms, referring toprecise situations in the roda3. For exam-ple, Mestre Cacau asserts that malandragemis pretending you go and not go; forMestre Amen, it is when you think thathes here hes behind you (my transla-tions).4Malandragem is thus the attitudeone adopts when facing concrete situa-

tions. The reason for these very practicaldefinitions might be found in MestreNestor Capoeiras quote. Referring heremore precisely to malcia, his quote cannevertheless also be applied to the closeconcept of malandragem. He asserts it[malcia] is not something that can be ra-tionalized. It is not something that can beunderstood with the use of the mind (cit.in Downey, 2005: 124); hence the impor-

3 The roda is the actual circle where the game ofcapoeira physically takes place.4 These quotes are taken from interviews con-

ducted by Brazilian director and photographer

Lucia Correia Lima for the production of the

documentary film Mandinga em Manhattan

(2005), but my own experiences also corroborate

that malandragem is often defined very prag-matically.

tance of embodied research and an em-bodied understanding of capoeira.

It could be argued that malandragempresupposes a special state of mind that

would enable one to see certain situationsand act strategically with wit and cunning.However, an attention to embodiment incapoeira can reveal that this state of mindis not a previous disposition but that it israther the concrete situations of the gamethat instil the practitioner with this way offacing the world. Downeys previouslymentioned analysis of the ginga demon-strates how the very physical experienceand performance of capoeira can contrib-ute to this state of mind. It is now clear

how many social, cultural and symbolicmeanings inherent to capoeira cannot beunderstood without participating physi-cally in the roda and becoming aware ofthem through ones body. Personally,many things I know about capoeira I havelearnt through my body and it took meyears to be able to articulate them intowords. I believe that certain dimensions ofmalandragem and how they apply to thepractice and transnational circulation of

capoeira can only be understood throughembodied research. Moreover, if, as I ar-gue following DaMatta, malandragem iscentral to Brazilian society and if playingcapoeira allows an embodied understand-ing of malandragem, then we can suggestthat playing capoeira allows foreigners toembody a central value of Brazilian soci-ety. This opens a rich path of reflection asto why capoeira remains so closely associ-ated to Brazil even if it is now practiced

and performed by so many foreigners.

Finally, in a universe so thor-oughly permeated by ambiguity and bythe use of deception as a privileged strat-egy, it is important to find research toolsthat can help address some discrepanciesarising from these very features of ca-poeira. Throughout my practice and re-

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search, I have found many inconsisten-cies between what mestres say and whatthey do. Depending on who they are talk-ing to, they will put forward differentversions of what capoeira is, or of what

they are teaching their students. The vari-ability in their very discourse is thencomplicated by another layer of informa-tion coming from their attitude in theroda. What they say they teach might notbe exactly the same as what they ortheir body actually teach while playingwith their students. Similarly, their ac-tions in the rodamight challenge the ver-bal definitions they give of capoeira. It isimportant to understand that all thesedifferent versions verbal and embodied,

representational and experienced endup constituting the overall practice ofcapoeira, and this is why a combinationof methods and theories is necessary.Here, however, I want to insist in em-bodied research as one powerful tool thatcan shed light on both the discrepanciesand continuities between practice andrepresentations.

Now, it is important not to newly

essentialize the body by turning our atten-tion to embodied practices. What I amsuggesting here is not to see embodiedknowledge as more authentic knowl-edge, but merely to recognize it alongsidemore analytical or semiotic ways of ap-proaching the world. Moreover, a focuson embodied practices is not enough ifthe binary and underlying hierarchy between reason and embodiment remains.If Western hegemonic assumptions on

mind and body remain, then an attentionto the body might not help debunk butmight on the contrary reinforce the bina-ries, further marking embodied practicesas Other or non-Western (see Taylor,2003: 22-25). Power relations are presentin embodied knowledge as much as inother forms of knowledge (Fabian, 1990;Foucault, 1976). This is why it is impor-

tant to pay attention to all the forms ofknowledge, discourses and meanings atplay in special embodied practices. Someare present in forms of stereotypes, othersare enacted by the very bodies in move-

ment, while yet others might be found inthe relations between the practice and theenvironment in which it is performed. Toillustrate this last assertion with capoeiraonce again, it is clear that the meanings ofthis cultural form are not the same whenperformed on a stage for the public of asummer festival in New York or on astreet corner in Brazil and even there, itis not the same if practiced in Salvador infront of passing hordes of tourists or insome more remote favela of So Paulo.

Here, it becomes clear that the whole per-formance has to be included in our studies the actors, the spectators, the setting,the choreographies, narratives and plot,and finally the shifting interactions be-tween all those elements. This is why byway of conclusion, this paper will arguethat a combination of all the above men-tioned approaches, textual and embodied,is necessary to address the full complexityof the body and its practices, in our case

capoeira.

Conclusion: combined approach for anelusive object

In their introduction to their reader onthe body, Mariam Fraser and MonicaGreco (2005) argue that the study of dif-ferent aspects of the body require differ-ent sets of tools. The different approachesthat have been mentioned in this paper

are thus all valid and necessary. Moreover,they should be used in constant interac-tion and combination rather than in isola-tion. In fact, even if she is a clear advocateof performance studies, Diana Taylor stillconvincingly demonstrates that the ar-chive and the repertoire the concep-tual pair she uses to describe textual mate-rial and embodied practices are in a dia-

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lectical rather than diametrically opposedrelation. The same applies to meanings ofthe body and embodied practices. There isa constant interplay between the meaningsaffixed on the body that can be read

semiotically as texts, and the embodiedknowledge enacted, conveyed and acces-sible through performance and embodiedresearch. Texts and practices, representa-tions and experiences all co-constitute thecultural forms that circulate in the globalworld. This will become clearer when ex-emplified by capoeira.

Capoeira is now a cultural formthat circulates transnationally. It has beenexported in many countries in the past

four decades and it is no longer practicedsolely by Brazilians. Many foreigners arebecoming increasingly involved andskilled in the practice of capoeira as wellas responsible for its circulation in trans-national networks. However, capoeira alsoretains a strong association with its home-land of Brazil. In many settings, it is oftenrepresented alongside Brazilian flags andalluring samba dancers in foreign coun-tries where Brazil evokes an exotic land of

sensual and embodied pleasures. In thesecases, capoeira becomes a symbol of Bra-zil capoeira is used to brand Brazil justlike its Brazilian origins become thetrademark giving it sign-value in the mar-ket-driven cultural field. Hence, capoeiracan be conceptualized as a valuable com-modity in a global capitalist market wherecultural difference sells. For foreigners,capoeira becomes a prized cultural capitalin Western societies where cosmopolitan

selves and identities are increasingly val-ued. Now, all these uses and meanings ofcapoeira circulate mostly through its rep-resentations in the media, in film, in fes-tivals, on stage. The image projected bycapoeira and the meanings embedded inthe tropes, stereotypes, and signs con-tained within its representations all makethe practice a symbol of Brazil, a valuable

asset for the construction of identities; insum, a powerful tool to brand both Bra-zil and oneself. The various uses of ca-poeira in the capitalist market of culturalforms partly determine what capoeira is

and a lot of the meanings at stake in thisdynamic can be analysed through a semi-otic readings of the capoeiristas bodiesand their movements.

Now, the previous account some-what reduces capoeira to a mere sign-value used to increase a country or an in-dividuals cultural capital. Without denyingthis aspect and use of capoeira in theglobal cultural market, it needs to be ac-knowledged that capoeira remains a pow-

erful community builder as well as ameans of individual empowerment, not sofar from what it was for slaves seeking a mental, physical, spiritual liberation. Inthe immediate context of the game, practi-tioners learn strategies and skills that canalso be applied outside the roda. Individu-als might feel empowered by the controlthey acquire of their bodies as well as themental strategies they learn to use to theiradvantage. For example, women in North-

America might feel empowered by playingcapoeira as equals to men and being ableto use wit and cunning to defeat physicalforce in a game that plays with both. At abroader scale, capoeira practitionersaround the world also constitute an origi-nal transnational community where ca-poeiras meanings go beyond those putforward to market the practice within acapitalist logic. Many mestres now definecapoeira as an encompassing practice that

can create cross-cultural bridges aroundthe world. People from diverse back-grounds are united inside the space of theinternational capoeira school. The groupof capoeira is presented as a family whereeverybody is welcomed, independently oftheir race, class, gender, age or nationality.Similarly, when a capoeirista is travellingin another country, he can find a home

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9

in foreign capoeira groups. Somehow, ca-poeira is working locally against the soli-tude and isolation prevailing in global cit-ies. Certainly, all those meanings of ca-poeira are more likely to be accessed

through an embodied involvement in ca-poeira.

The challenge is, however, to seehow these two versions of capoeira influ-ence one another and come to co-constitute the cultural form as a whole.Surely, the representations of capoeira inthe consumer driven market influence thepractice in capoeira schools around theworld. Foreigners who first come intocontact with capoeira on the stage of a

festival or in a TV show where acrobaticmoves and the rhythmic value of the prac-tice are emphasized will come to the ca-poeira school with certain expectations inmind. The experience of the transnationalcapoeira community might challenge ornot these assumptions, but they will nev-ertheless remain one source of under-standing of the practice. In turn, practitio-ners who have acquired an embodied un-derstanding of capoeira might personally

fight and take on themselves to challengethe external representations and person-ally harmonize these latter with the valuesphysically present in the roda. The interre-lations between the meanings of capoeirain different moments of its circulation arecomplex, and this is why they call for theconstant interaction of methods and theo-ries. In every case, the body as a centralsignifier of the practice and representationof capoeira is both a source and receptacle

of socio-cultural meanings and the meth-ods we chose to analyse it must reflect thecomplexity of these interactions.


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