Cultural Creolisation and Playfulness: An Example of Capoeira Angola in Russia
2015; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 36; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/07256868.2015.1095716
ISSN1469-9540
Autores Tópico(s)Diversity and Impact of Dance
ResumoLiterature on cultural creolisation and hybridity often assumes that innovation and creativity accompany cultural mixing. Ethnographic data from two groups practising an Afro-Brazilian art-form in Russia suggests that some processes of cultural mixing are more creative than others. Maria Lugones' notion of playfulness can help us understand why. Playfulness as an attitude implies critical openness towards the new and unknown. With this attitude the practitioners of capoeira angola in Ufa create an exciting environment that is open to individual initiative and experimentation. The less playful group of capoeira in Samara follows the existing Brazilian norms and rules of capoeira angola rather rigidly. Therefore, cultural mixing of Russian and Afro-Brazilian worlds occurs more creatively in one case than in the other. There is more freedom for unique initiatives in cultural creolisation that is characterised by the attitude of playfulness.
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