Ring of Liberation: Deceptive Discourse in Brazilian Capoeira [Paperback]

J. Lowell Lewis (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0226476839 | ISBN-13: 978-0226476834 | Publication Date: September 15, 1992 | Edition: 1

Based on eighteen months of intensive participant-observation, Ring of Liberation offers both an in-depth description of capoeira—a complex Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines feats of great strength and athleticism with music and poetry—and a pioneering synthetic approach to the analysis of complex cultural performance.

Capoeira originated in early slave culture and is practiced widely today by urban Brazilians and others. At once game, sport, mock combat, and ritualized performance, it involves two players who dance and "battle" within a ring of musicians and singers. Stunning physical performances combine with music and poetry in a form as expressive in movement as it is in word.

J. Lowell Lewis explores the convergence of form and content in capoeira. The many components and characteristics of this elaborate black art form—for example, competing genre frameworks and the necessary fusion of multiple modes of expression—demand, Lewis feels, to be given "body" as well as "voice." In response, he uses Peircean semiotics and recent work in discourse and performance theory to map the connections between physical, musical, and linguistic play in capoeira and to reflect on the general relations between semiotic systems and the creation and recording of cultural meaning.

Product Details

• Paperback: 294 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (September 15, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226476839
• ISBN-13: 978-0226476834
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #638,206 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Capoeira at the border to Brazil., December 3, 1999

By 

Andreas Lyon ([e-mail]) (Denmark) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ring of Liberation: Deceptive Discourse in Brazilian Capoeira (Hardcover)

Yes, I think this book deserves five stars, because it gave me insight; both professional and personal. Training Capoeira for seven years (including two trips to Brazil for the same reason) has taken me to the strange border between two cultures: my own Danish average European socio-historic background, and the Afro-brazilian transcultural vegetation in which Capoeira flourishes. Alouring - and as Lewis notes: deceptive, Capoeira as a performance reveals conflictuality on the Afro-brazilian social and historical level, which differs from the writers own background; in this case quite similar to my case. The task of relating to this difference is met by Ring of Liberation through respect of the ontic 'way' of the capoeirista, and at the same time maintaining an epistemic approach. What this means, is that Ring of Liberation can be read by the intellectual layman as well as the non-brazilian capoeira enthusiast, as a guide to experiences already had or about to happen...great stuff!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A nicely writen book about a misterious sport, November 12, 1998

By 

Andre Tabanez ([e-mail]) (Baton Rouge, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ring of Liberation: Deceptive Discourse in Brazilian Capoeira (Paperback)

This book brings a good deal of information on the history of capoeira and on the phylosophy behind it. After a few years practicing it, I finally had in my hands some background to understand some of the the principles, and part of the history of this sport. The author apparently has had contact with many mestres, both in Brazil and in the US, and has done quite an intensive survey on historical records, to get to his conclusions. Furthermore, he analyzes capoeira under an anthropological light, giving a scientific taste to the book that we don't find in most publications about it (although I don't agree with some of his interpretations). My only complain is that I would like to see more figures in the book, which would make it more interesting to people with less knowledge on the subject.

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Biased, perhaps, but not an "agenda of subjugation", November 20, 1999

By 

Craig Wiggins ([e-mail]) (Richmond, Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ring of Liberation: Deceptive Discourse in Brazilian Capoeira (Hardcover)

I used this book, along with a host of other books, transcripts, articles and recordings of capoeira to complete my undergraduate thesis in anthropology. Regarding an earlier post here, i don't think that Lewis was trying to necessarily undermine the black African origins of capoeira, but rather his experiences with capoeiristas around Brazil led him to focus on the wholly Brazilian cultural aspects (samba, too, is a cultural phenomenon with roots in Africa). While i do belive that his treatment of the African origins of capoeira were sketchy, this is to be expected as the data on capoeira's African origins is not very clear, and to the best of my knowledge is to date a matter of conjecture. The only truth regarding that matter is that capoeira did come from Africa with the (primarily West African) slaves and developed into modern capoeira while in Brazil. This last part, "in Brazil", is something that I stress in the sense that although many Caribbean and South American nations received slaves from the same parts of Africa, only Brazil's slaves and mulattos produced capoeira.

More to the point of this type of entry: the book is a definite must-read for anyone (capoeirista or not) interested in the modern expressions of african diasporan culture.