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Paper short abstract:

Based on my long-term fieldwork among Afro-Brazilian capoeira groups, in this paper, I describe the complex relationship between teachers and students and the difficulties of learning the art of deception, which is non-representational but essential to understanding capoeira’s system of knowledge.

Paper long abstract:

Anthropological analysis of ritual practices has focused in the last thirty years on its effectiveness in creating a self-contained world. In this sense, this self-referential capacity has given rise to cultural forms that use symbols, images, and paradoxical mythical narratives accompanying those ritual practices. In Afro-Brazilian capoeira, conceived here as a ritual art form that combines elements of fight, dance, play, and music, body performance is the cornerstone of cosmological knowledge and what teachers call tradition. The logic of traditional practice is based on deception. Teachers conceive deception as something one cannot transmit to others; it is non-conceptual, beyond representation and words. However, it is a quality all capoeira practitioners can see through performance but cannot be explained as a development of simply physical techniques. Thus, the performative evidence of deception is wrapped with mystical and spiritual connotations that give meaning to its existence. The ineffability of deception, paradoxically, becomes the cornerstone of power and hierarchical knowledge, which structure capoeira groups in Brazil and abroad. In this paper, I describe how the paradox of deception provides a non-rational experience of power that gives practitioners a chance to explore other human possibilities of freedom that lies beyond the realms of cultural constraints and hierarchical impositions.