The Social and Cultural Effects of Capoeira’s Transnational Circulation in Salvador da Bahia and Barcelona

• Autores: Theodora Lefkaditou
• Directores de la Tesis: Joan Bestard Camps (dir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universitat de Barcelona ( España ) en 2014
• Idioma: inglés
• Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Joao Pina-Cabral (presid.), Roger Canals Vilageliu (secret.), Venetia Kantsa (voc.)
• Materias:
  • Antropología
    • Antropología cultural
    • Etnografía y etnología
    • Antropología social
  • Demografía
    • Demografía geográfica
      • Movilidad y migraciones internacionales
• Enlaces
  • Tesis en acceso abierto en:  TDX  Dipòsit Digital de la UB 
• Resumen

  • The thesis is an inquiry into the social and cultural implications of the Bahian Capoeira teachers’ transnational mobilities and consequent immobilities. Following the trajectories of young male teachers -in different instances and places- their transactions and encounters with various ‘others’, the study analyzes how the meanings given to their practices and the particularities of their socialities, are constantly transformed. Capoeira becomes the lenses to understand a fluctuating society with its historical and social particularities as Bahians, foreigners, researchers, Capoeira apprentices, young teachers and older mestres evaluate the possible outcomes of their actions, interests and identifications. Mobility and movement are examined both inside and outside Capoeira’s ring (roda). They include Capoeira’s game (jogo), tourist and migratory practices and everyday economies. From crossing national boundaries, the focus shifts on how people in the field define, affirm and challenge boundaries in different social and geographic scales that eventually implicate the boundaries of the self and its definition. The study illuminates processes of boundary negotiation, of opening up and at the same time, of closure as mobility brings into forth questions of relatedness and processes of becoming. The challenges and conflicts that both older mestres and younger teachers face are connected to deeper issues of belonging and affective relationships; of how gender, ethnicity, desires, human value and worth are experienced in today’s changing world. Finally, the thesis is a reflection on methodological and theoretical uncertainties regarding the anthropological study of the ‘Other’.