Approaching Capoeira Traditions and Philosophy
So far I have been approaching Capoeira traditions and philosophy, and criticizing the ulterior motives underpinning traditionalism (not traditions).
In this post I would like to share two important statements in video from two renowned Mestres supporting my line of thoughts so far. The first statement was taken from the documentary movie Capoeiragem na Bahia (IRDEB/TVE, 2000) and features Mestre Acordeon discussing traditions and changes in Capoeira over time. In the second one you will see Mestre Cláudio Danadinho addressing Capoeira’s inner principles within the institutional movie Volta Por Cima – Capoeira, Educação e Cultura.
I sincerely hope that these video clips helps your understanding of both the dangers of traditionalism and the importance of seeking philosophical concepts as wise means supporting your quest for truthful knowledge in the Art-form.
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Approaching Capoeira Traditions and Philosophy
The interesting thing about these two little clips is that they both contain substantial knowledge and wisdom in how to confront not only tensions within Capoeira, but also within our societies in general. Despite addressing different issues they complement each other in how they mention present day tensions in Capoeira, as well as the role of our Art-form within a globalized world.
First, illustrating the risks we all run in adopting a radical traditionalist approach, Mestre Acordeon draws attention to a particular discourse supporting a search for a Capoeira based upon an idealized past. As I mentioned in “Capoeira – The Brazilian People’s Wisdom” the risk with the above mentioned discourse is that most of the time its real interests are covert, and often strongly diverge from an honest endeavour to preserve knowledge and wisdom in the form of cultural practices (traditions).
Another striking point of his statement is over matters of ‘judgements of values in Capoeira‘, an issue that I am deeply concerned with as it can trigger absurd comparisons and behaviour in Capoeira. As I see it, this phenomenon is entangled with matters of cultural and geographical authenticity, and in fact, as Mestre Acordeon states, it causes Brazilian and non-Brazilian capoeiristas to attempt to become ‘more traditional’ as if such thing was possible. Furthermore, it supports the belief that this quantification of tradition will bring cultural authenticity. Lets have a look at the first clip.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUlJLGugU7U]
Mestre Acordeon’s statement in the documentary movie Capoeiragem na Bahia1.
(“If one says: “- Lets practice the same Capoeira that was done a 100 years ago.” It’s idle talk! We can’t reach that far. It’s only a semantic matter, a matter of political attitude. The more realistic attitude is to say that we won’t bring new influences to Capoeira; they are unnecessary, but let’s allow the art to grow and develop, repeat reality. And be capable to satisfy the actual needs of its adepts.
There are people saying: “- Capoeira has not grown, it has swollen.”; “Today’s Capoeira is a lot better than the one from the past.”; “Today’s Capoeira is more violent.” I can’t understand these judgements of values regarding Capoeira. First of all, “traditional” is not something that is quantifiable, no one, out of the blue, is more traditional than someone else. More traditional in which way? Because the majority of what we see in Capoeira are recent traditions, inventions from a certain period of time. No one knows, no one has access to a Capoeira that projects itself far in the past. There was no video documentation, no movie production… the oral tradition in Capoeira doesn’t reach that far in past… the written traditions even now…
So, in truth, everything we know, everything we talk about in Capoeira is always a process reflecting the present. In my view, … Capoeira transforms itself, it has this capacity of not stagnating, if we say “Capoeira is not the same any more” and try to stagnate it, Capoeira will die.”)
Does the way Mestre Acordeon confront the problems we face in Capoeira help you to re-access your believes, identities, and attitudes as a capoeirista? For me, it certainly did: it took long years before I realised how to confront such issues and discovered that most traditions was not carved in rock. Above all, I figured out, from other Mestres’ teachings and my own experience as well, that one cannot fully grasp Capoeira if it attempts to do so with a western mind set; simply as a passive learner, a consumer. In this way, one can learn bits and pieces of Capoeira, acquire some knowledge (usually sold as ‘ancient traditions’), but the wisdom steaming from cultural systems, such as Capoeira, can not be bought.
When I began to understand these concepts, I headed down the path of learning more about Brazilian history and culture. I needed to know more about the cultural context from which such a beautiful and intriguing Art-form sprung. This quest rewarded me in many ways, but chiefly with knowledge regarding the origin of Brazilian people as a whole, and the understanding of Capoeira as a social and educational instrument.
Yet, there was no ‘universal truth’… A few very persuasive “mestres” the heads of different schools from both Capoeira Regional and Angola claimed to have the authority to determine whether or not what most people were doing within Capoeira was authentic. This caused many schools to alter the way they expressed their Capoeira and to invest great sums every year in an attempt to ‘buy’ recognition from these “mestres” and/or to earn authenticity by means of becoming ‘more traditional’.
I enlarged my search and begun to seek for Capoeira Mestres outside the mainstream cliques of celebrities. Albeit, I found Mestres whose ideas and concerns were much more in tune with practitioners, scholars and philosophers bravely standing against the westernisation of Brazilian culture. It is my belief, supported by the ideas of these scholars and Mestres, that throughout the early period of time in which a great deal of Brazilian culture and society was being formed, including Capoeira of course, it was developed under a peculiar situation of severe and specific constraints. Such a specific and harsh context, and how people dealt with it, generated purposeful and wise cultural practices – such as Capoeira; still as capable to enable its practitioners in our present day’s conflicts as it was when serving libertarian practices of the past.
Mestre Cláudio Danadinho, one of the founders of the Senzala Capoeira Group in the 60’s and a renowned architectural scholar at the Brasília Federal University, is certainly one of these brave counterparts standing against the changes caused by the western rulling system. In the following clip he describes the origin of Capoeira as an outcome of intercultural interaction in opposition to the inhuman conditions of slavery.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kfdInK3ogc]
Mestre Cláudio Danadinho’s statement at the Volta Por Cima institutional movie1.
(“Capoeira – Caa apuam era – a Tupi-guarani expression, is the name given to a practice born from the resistance of those who couldn’t bear living in servile slavery indignity, were them the native Brazilian, the African, or that convict ruffian from the colony who had landed in a Brazilian jail.
The solution for all of those was to escape to the highlands (sertão), to hit the capoeiras, catching the escape routes… She (Capoeira) emerges transformed by a disguise that becomes its method, above all through the inclusion of the berimbau, from that sorcerer, that m’burumbumba, who was that man moving around with a Berimbau like an enchanted who attended the same cultural region. Such inclusion came driven exactly by that fundamental inter-cultural character of Brazil – an open and indifferent alternative to ethnic mixing. Ethnic mixing builds up new procedures. Today we see Capoeira and we realise that it has global assimilation because it differs from all this winner and loser Manicheism, that’s not Capoeira, Capoeira can only be consummated within alterity, within the comprehension of one another.
Today we realise this richness in Capoeira that the world understand, that scapes from this winner and loser Manicheism; therefore, very interesting to the educational processes, in the procedures of recovering dignity, because through Capoeira a person can become a performer, a historian, or may become an excellent athlete.
A boy, a child, or even a desperate person in regards to the tensions of life, can find in Capoeira an alternative way to defeat banzo, a way to recover one’s feeling.”)
I hope Mestre Acordeon’s and Mestre Danadinho’s way of confronting our present tensions in Capoeira has inspired you to pursue the intriguing cultural mysteries of our beloved Art-form. Overall, I hope you feel puzzled enough, like I felt, to seek for these core concepts of Brazilian culture presented by them.
In case your comments and e-mails do not lead me somewhere esle, for my next post I plan to come to grips with what Mestre Danadinho mentions as the intercultural perspective more in depth.
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1- Statements translated by Eurico Vianna
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Ps: In the future I will try to figure it out how to add subtitles in clips used to illustrate our posts.
Ps2: Thanks a lot to Flamingo (CMA) who has been helping me to edit my texts and to Instrutor “Maguim” who kindly has been editing these clips.
Tags: capoeira, cultural traditions, ethnic view of capoeira, intercultural learning, invention of traditions
Eurico.
And I am finally writing about what I read here.
This post sounds a way to much like discussions I’ve got back in my region where the Gauchos go to CTGs to celebrate and protect the tradition. In fact there are many who say that the tradition is as is and nothing can change however those forget that even or traditions refer to ‘reconstructed’ history which surely leads to mistakes. Not to mention the fact the if the ‘CTGs’ doesn’t adapt themselvs they might end up dying.
Indeed I’m still to beginner to talk about capoeira, but I do understand your feeling.
Axé brother
Axé Gaucho!
Muito obrigado! Thanks for your support and lets keep in touch!