Stanzas and Sticks: Poetic and Physical Challenges in the Afro-Brazilian Culture of the Paraiba Valley, Rio de Janeiro

This article examines physical and poetic challenges among men in the post-emancipation society of the Paraíba valley, in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Challenges were common in cultural forms such as jongo, calango, Folia de Reis (Kings’ Folly) and jogo de pau (stick playing). These challenges allowed poor men from coffee plantations, cattle estates and nearby villages to display their physical dexterity as well as their poetic skills, and ultimately to assert their value as human beings in a society that otherwise denied them access to basic citizen rights

Ringue ou academia? A emergência dos estilos modernos da capoeira e seu contexto global [Capoeira circle or sports academy? The emergence of modern styles of capoeira and their global context]

The emergence of the modern styles of capoeira should be considered in the global context of the modernization of martial arts currently in progress in Europe and Asia on the one hand, and the new phase of Afro-descendant modernity on the other. The confrontation between the capoeira, jiu-jitsu and other martial arts circles led mestre Bimba to develop his regional Bahian fighting style. The revival of traditional capoeira as Angolan capoeira led by mestre Pastinha is part of the broader movement of affirmation of Afro-Bahian culture in Salvador and the growing visibility of the Afro-descendant body in the Atlantic world

Resgatando o carnaval de rua: A fuzarca maranhense contra a homogeneização nacional-global

RESGATANDO O CARNAVAL DE RUA: A FUZARCA MARANHENSE CONTRA A HOMOGENEIZAÇÃO NACIONAL GLOBA

Belém, cidade negra na Amazônia

Resenha de:BEZERRA Neto, José Maria; LAURINDO Junior, Luiz Carlos (orgs.). Escravidão urbana e abolicionismo no Grão-Pará, século XIX. Jundiaí: Paco Editorial, 2020. 364p

Engolo and Capoeira. From Ethnic to Diasporic Combat Games in the Southern Atlantic

This article provides a re-examination of the main Afrocentric narrative of capoeira origins, the engolo or ‘Zebra Dance’, in light of historical primary sources and new ethnographic evidence gathered during fieldwork in south-west Angola. By examining engolo’s bodily techniques, its socio-historical context and cultural meanings, the piece emphasises its insertion into a pastoral lifestyle and highlights the relatively narrow ethnic character of the practice in Angola. This analysis and the comparison with capoeira helps us to develop certain hypotheses about the formation, migration, and re-invention of diasporic combat games between southern Angola and coastal Brazil, and more broadly, to increase our understanding of how African cultures spread across the southern Atlantic