Reconfiguring Capoeira - Global Transformations of an Afro-Brazilian Art

In the past two and a half decades, capoeira has experienced a remarkable global expansion. However, it's challenging to quantify its full extent. This book aims to explore the diverse reconfigurations and resignifications that capoeira has undergone in the new millennium. It brings together a diverse group of experts from various disciplines, including anthropology, history, ethnomusicology, political science, and social activism. One of the book's primary objectives is to examine capoeira's recent resurgence in Africa, where various countries across the continent have witnessed significant practical and ritual innovations. Additionally, the book delves into capoeira's role as a tool of political discourse and activism in Brazil, the United States, and beyond, and how it has been instrumental in supporting causes advocating for ethnic minorities in Europe and the Middle East. As an art deeply rooted in its African ancestral past, capoeira's adoption by groups in diverse locations like Ghana, Togo, Benin, Guinea Bissau, Nigeria, and Angola, demonstrates a revitalization that has yet to be fully explored in capoeira studies. This book seeks to revisit this expansive movement while always keeping its impact in Brazil in mind.The collected texts provide a comprehensive overview of capoeira's global status, the new territories it has conquered, and its power as an art of resistance. In this context, the concept of resistance becomes crucial in understanding its significance and current influence on the world.

List of contents

Chapter 1: Introduction.-Chapter 2: The importance of Mestre Moraes and the Grupo de Capoeira Angola Pelourinho in the Global Consolidation of Capoeira.- Chapter 3: From Angola to Brazil and Back Again: Capoeira in the Flux and Reflux of the African Diaspora.- Chapter 4: Disinterest in Capoeira: Exploring Brazilian Descendants Relationship with Capoeira in West Africa.- Chapter 5: The Mission: A Case Study on Capoeira as an Instrument of Brazilian International Cooperation in the Lusophone African World.- Chapter 6: Mobility and the Development of Personal Philosophies of Capoeira.- Chapter 7: Becoming a Capoeira Mestre in London: Mestre Fantasma and the Relocation of Capoeira in Europe.- Chapter 8: What Does it Take to Become a Mexican Mestre? On the Acquisition of Legitimacy in Internationalized Capoeira Contexts.- Chapter 9: Berimbau s Use Value and Exchange Value : Production and Consumption as Symbols of Freedom in Contemporary Global Capoeira Angola.- Chapter 10: Thinking the Postcolonial Through Martial Arts: The Case of Afro-Brazilian Capoeira and its Presence in Russia.- Chapter 11: Feminism in Traditional Communities: The Case of Women in Capoeira Angola.- Chapter 12: Capoeira, ela dá mas ela cobra : A Foreign Researcher-Practitioner Reflects on Her Ethical Responsibilities to Capoeira Angola.

About the author

Sergio González Varela
is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Warsaw, Poland. He is a Habilitated doctor by the University of Warsaw. He holds a PhD in anthropology from the University of London (University College London). He was a visiting Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany in 2025, and a Visiting Fulbright Scholar in the academic year 2016-2017. He is the author of several publications, among them the books Capoeira, Mobility, and Tourism: Preserving an Afro-Brazilian Tradition in a Globalized World (2019), Power in Practice: The Pragmatic Anthropology of Afro-Brazilian Capoeira (2017), and, more recently, El Arte de Engañar: Ensayos de Antropología Social (2022) and Resistir: Hacia una Antropología de la Resiliencia (2025).

Summary

In the past two and a half decades, capoeira has experienced a remarkable global expansion. However, it’s challenging to quantify its full extent. This book aims to explore the diverse reconfigurations and resignifications that capoeira has undergone in the new millennium. It brings together a diverse group of experts from various disciplines, including anthropology, history, ethnomusicology, political science, and social activism. One of the book’s primary objectives is to examine capoeira’s recent resurgence in Africa, where various countries across the continent have witnessed significant practical and ritual innovations. Additionally, the book delves into capoeira’s role as a tool of political discourse and activism in Brazil, the United States, and beyond, and how it has been instrumental in supporting causes advocating for ethnic minorities in Europe and the Middle East. As an art deeply rooted in its African ancestral past, capoeira’s adoption by groups in diverse locations like Ghana, Togo, Benin, Guinea Bissau, Nigeria, and Angola, demonstrates a revitalization that has yet to be fully explored in capoeira studies. This book seeks to revisit this expansive movement while always keeping its impact in Brazil in mind.The collected texts provide a comprehensive overview of capoeira’s global status, the new territories it has conquered, and its power as an art of resistance. In this context, the concept of resistance becomes crucial in understanding its significance and current influence on the world.

Product details

• Assisted by: Sergio González Varela (Editor)
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 27.03.2026
• EAN: 9783032132390
• ISBN: 978-3-0-3213239-0
• Illustrations: Approx. 230 p. 12 illus., 7 illus. in color.
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Miscellaneous; Tradition, Ritual, Geschichte allgemein und Weltgeschichte, Globalization, Resistance, Capoeira, Sociocultural Anthropology, World History, Global and Transnational History