5Areias, O que é capoeira, pp. 15, 16.
6 Ibid., p. 17.
7 T.J.Desch-Obi, ‘Capoeira: Martial Art as a Spiritual Discipline’, Journal of Caribbean Studies (1992), p. 88;
L.V.de Sousa Reis, O mundo de pernas para o ar. A capoeira no Brasil (São Paulo: Publisher Brasil, 1997),
p. 23.
8 T.J.Nardi, ‘Kapwara: The Afro-Brazilian martial art that features everything from zebra strikes to kicks with a
Sharp Surprise!’, World of Martial Arts (March/April 1996), p. 34.
9 See LP cover of capoeira record by Mestre Nagô; S.G.Wilson, The Drummer’s Path. Moving the Spirit with
Ritual and Traditional Drumming (Rochester: Destiny Books, 1992), illustration p. 24.
10 R.F.Thompson, comment on LP Capoeira. Afro-Brazilian Art Form. Mestre Jelon [Vieira], featuring
Grandmasters João Grande, Bobó, João Pequeno (New York: The Capoeira Foundation, 1989).
11 Areias, O que i Capoeira, p. 21.
12 For an excellent overview of available sources on slavery, see Guia Brasileiro de fontes para a história da África,
da escravidão negra e do negro na sociedade atual (Brasília, Ministério da Justiça, Arquivo Nacional,
Departamento de Imprensa Nacional, 1988). See also A.J.Lacombe, E.Silva, F.de Assis Barbosa, Rui Barbosa e a
queima dos arquivos (Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa, 1988).
13 R.Barthes, Mythologies (London: Jonathan Cape, 1972) p. 143.
14 T.H.Holloway, Polidng Rio de Janeiro. Repression and Resistance in a Nineteenth Century City (Stanford:
Stanford University Press, 1993), p. 29.
15 P.Coêlho de Araujo has however found legislation (posturas) from the 1830s–1850s issued by various towns in
the province of São Paulo that explicitly forbade ‘the practice or exercise of the game called capoeira’.
Abordagens sócio-antropológicas da luta/jogo da capoeira (Maia, Portugal: Instituto Superior da Maia, 1997),
pp. 148–50.
16 As quoted in L.da Câmara Cascudo, Diconário do Folclore Brasileiro (3rd edn, Rio de Janeiro: Tecnoprint, 1972),
p. 241.
17 Machado de Assis, Crônicas (1859–1888) (Porto Alegre: Jackson Inc., 1944), Vol. 4, pp. 227–30.
18 See E.Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990) and the
discussion of the Brazilian case in M.Chauí, Brasil. Mito fundador e sociedade autoritdria (São Paulo: Fundação
Perseu Abramo, 2000), p. 16ff.
19 I choose here two dates which not only reflect European chronology but also delimit the Brazilian period of
decolonization from the first anti-colonial conspiracy (Minas Gerais, 1789) to the end of the cycle of regionalist
and radical liberal uprisings (Pernambuco, 1848).
20 D.Moreira Leite, O caráter nacional brasikiro. História de uma Ideologia (2nd edn, São Paulo: Pioneira, 1969)
remains a key text on this topic.
21 Moreira Leite, O caráter nacional provides a valuable periodization of the Brazilian search for the national
character.
22 T.Skidmore, Black into White. Race and Nationality in Brazilian Thought (New York: Oxford University Press,
1974), Lilia Moritz Schwarcz, O espetáculo das raças. Cientistas, instituições e questão racial no Brasil,
1870–1930 (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1993).
23 K.Munanga, Rediscutindo a mestiçagem no Brasil. Identidade nacional versus identidade negra (Petrópolis:
Vozes, 1999).
24 ‘How the History of Brazil Should be Written’, in Lewis Hanke (ed.) History of Latin American Civilization.
Sources and Interpretation (London: Methuen, 1969), Vol. 1, p. 501.
25 B.E.Burns, Nationalism in Brazil (New York: Frederick A.Praeger, 1968), p. 55.
26 Chauí, Brasil. Mito fundador e sociedade autoritária, p. 27.
27 For a more detailed discussion of these issues, see J.Lesser, Negotiating National Identity. Immigrants,
Minorities, and the Struggle for Ethnicity in Brazil (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999).
28 Abreu, Plácido de, Os capoeiras, Rio de Janeiro: Tipografia da Escola de Serafim José Alves, 1886, p. 3.216 NOTES