Domesticating an Urban Menace: Reforming Capoeira as a Brazilian National Sport

Author: Downey G.

Source: The International Journal of the History of Sport, Volume 19, Number 4, December 01, 2002 , pp. 1-32(32)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

Throughout the twentieth century, Brazilians have attempted to transform the Afro-Brazilian practice of capoeira, a game combining elements of dance, martial art and self-defence with music, song and ritual, into a national sport. These projects have followed four ideal-typical models: combat sport, national callisthenic, tournament competition and cultural game. Because each of these framings of capoeira as sport necessarily reduces the complexity and ambiguity of capoeira play - decisiveness is essential for a satisfactory sport - practitioners invariably lose interest in the activities that result. The art resists co-optation due to its incompatibility with predominant definitions of sport.

Keywords: Capoeira; Brazil; combat sports; nationalism; resistance; Afro-Brazilian art; physical education

Document Type: Research article

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