Query Result Set
Skip Navigation Links
   ActiveUsers:1331Hits:25696056Skip Navigation Links
Show My Basket
Contact Us
IDSA Web Site
Ask Us
Today's News
HelpExpand Help
Advanced search

  Hide Options
Sort Order Items / Page
MESTIAGEM (1) answer(s).
 
SrlItem
1
ID:   080669


Hybridity brazilian style: Samba, Carnaval, and the myth of "racial democracy" in Rio de Janeiro / Pravaz, Natasha   Journal Article
Pravaz, Natasha Journal Article
0 Rating(s) & 0 Review(s)
Publication 2008.
Summary/Abstract Through ethnographic and historical inquiry, this article inspects the usefulness of the concept of hybridity for an analysis of Rio's samba and carnaval. If differentiated from mesti agem, the concept of hybridity can productively be put to use. The discourse on mesti agem is the basis for dominant narratives of national identity and celebrates samba and other Afro-Brazilian cultural forms as symbols of Brazilianness and racial democracy. Such political use of culture was initiated by President Vargas's appropriation of subaltern performance genres in his populist project of modernity. At the same time, as expressions of Afro-Brazilian culture, samba and carnaval are contested performances; many celebrate the "racially democratic" character of samba spaces as a core domain of Afro-Brazilian sociability. This article traces the roots of samba and carnaval in Rio de Janeiro and examines their current import for a politics of identity by drawing from interviews and fieldwork at escola de samba Unidos da Cereja. The article stresses the methodological importance of addressing multiple practices and voices emerging in the context of samba performances. The concept of hybridity can thus describe Afro-Brazilians' use of culture in the negotiation of power imbalances and alternative values
Key Words Brazil  Hybridity  Mestiagem  Samba 
        Export Export