Capoeira
Capoeirais a Brazilian martial art that relies primarily on striking tech-
niques, although some grappling maneuvers, especially takedowns utilizing
the legs in either tripping or scissoring motions, and weapon techniques
complete the repertoire of the capoeirista (practitioner or “player” of
capoeira). Various etymologies of the name capoeiraare offered in the
scholarly literature. The root caor caáfrom Native Brazilian languages
refers to forests or woods. This linguistic stem is often used to connect the
origins of the term and the art to which it refers to African slave originators
who, the oral traditions of the art maintain, escaped to or practiced in the
bush from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Alternatively, the
Portuguese words capão(cock) and capoeira(cage for cocks) have been
used to link the word to a poultry market area in Rio de Janeiro where
slaves held capoeira rodas(roda [wheel], the playing area formed by
capoeiristas standing in a circle; also the contest or game played within such
a circle) and to cockfighting. Neither these nor any of a multitude of other
explanations for the origin of the term have been universally accepted.
The origins of capoeira are recorded only in the traditional legends of
the art and invariably focus on African influence. Considerable debate ex-
ists among practitioners and historians as to whether capoeira is the New
World development of an African martial art or a system originating in the
New World with African influences ranging from terminology to the
berimbau,the primary musical instrument used to provide accompaniment
for the jôgo(“match” or “game”). There are even suggestions that some of
the kicking techniques are derived from French savatevia European sea-
men who manned the cargo vessels that docked in Brazilian ports.
Regardless of the genealogy, the legends invariably associate capoeira
with the slave experience, which in Brazil lasted from the beginnings of the
sixteenth century until 1888. The vehicle of dance that characterizes the
practice of capoeira, oral traditions argue, allowed the practice of martial
techniques but concealed their intent from the overseers. Blows struck with
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