leaders of quite large associations—indeed, communities—of thousands of members. Others still struggle to
impose their leadership, especially those who have not passed through the recognized path to mastership or
who lack some of the required qualities for such a role.^175
It is here that the discourse about tradition or innovation, and stylistic orthodoxy connects with corporate
interests. We have seen that many teachers claim to practise ‘a mixture of Angola and Regional’. As some
mestres have not failed to point out, however, this assertion also allows lower graded teachers to do
whatever they want, without having to comply with the requirements of one of the ‘historic’ styles. This
posture eventually allows students to avoid the long apprenticeship with a mestre. Mestres, on the contrary,
try to keep upcoming teachers under as tight and long supervision as possible. It seems that expanding
hierarchies are a necessary outcome of the intensive growth of capoeira. Most groups have introduced a
number of designations for the new, intermediate stages that lead from formado to mestre. Teachers are thus
called instrutores, monitores, professores, or treinéis. Abadá even invented the mestrandos, students
considered of master level, but without the formal mestre title, reserved until very recently for the founders
of the group.
Relationships between mestres are complex and ambivalent. The mestres fight for hegemony over the
capoeira universe but also cooperate and negotiate for the growth of the art or other communitary ideals. By
all means they constitute models of behaviour, and exercise considerable influence in contemporary society
given the growing number of capoeiristas they are instructing. Very often that influence goes beyond the
classroom, and the mere teaching of physical movements, since many capoeira styles claim to be holistic art
forms encompassing all realms of life.
The extension of a mestre ’s power within a group varies enormously. Some groups have relatively open
structures, where students also have a say in how the organization is run. In other groups the mestre is a
kind of absolute monarch, who will not tolerate any divergent views and potential challengers. With regards
to power structures it seems that African, European and Native American traditions also merged, and,
forged by the experience of colonial exploitation and slavery, resulted in the emergence of a particular type
of local despot—the caciques and coronéis, as they are known in Brazil. As everywhere else in Brazilian
society, these figures also exist in the capoeira universe. Yet libertarian movements have also made their
attempts to build organizations in capoeira. A number of groups today have not only formal, but truly
democratic procedures. In many groups, collective bodies, such as the council of m estres and teachers,
debate questions of style and aim to reach a consensus.^176 How to accommodate different models of
relationships (hierarchical or circular models), each of which are appropriate to specific situations, within
one group is a question that still remains to be solved.^177 Egalitarian structures have been claimed more
intensively with the recent democratization of Brazilian society. The development of capoeira groups thus
reflects the many tortuous paths the country is taking towards a more democratic and egalitarian society,
and that applies to groups outside Brazil as well.
CONTEMPORARY CAPOEIRA 203