Playing the dance, dancing the game: Race, sex and stereotype in anthropological fieldworkFootnote*

My field research on capoeira has been generously funded through two grants from the WennerGren Foundation for Anthropological Research. I wish to thank my capoeira angola teacher for everything he has taught me. This support, that of ‘Maria’ and my other capoeira camarás as well as the generous time given to me by other capoeira mestres in Salvador have made my research possible. I also wish to thank Cecilia McCallum and Edilson Teixeira and the Santos family for their continual hospitality in the field. Don Kulick, Cecilia McCallum, Alejandro Frigerio and Peter Wade made insightful comments on earlier drafts of this paper, a support I greatly appreciate. Thanks also to the anonymous reviewers of this journal for their helpful comments. I also wish to acknowledge the man I call Roberto in this paper, for his courage, his insights and his joy.

References

• Almeida , Bira . 1986 . Capoeira, A Brazilian Art Form: History, Philosophy, and Practice , Berkeley : North Atlantic Books .
   Google Scholar
• Almeida , Raimundo . 1994 . A Saga do Mestre Bimba , Salvador : Ginga Associação de Capoeira .
   Google Scholar
• Andrews , George Reid . 1991 . Blacks and Whites in São Paulo, Brazil, 1888–1988 , Madison : University of Wisconsin Press .
   Google Scholar
• Bederman , Gail . 1995 . Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880–1917 , Chicago : University of Chicago Press .
   Google Scholar
• Bola Sete , Mestre . 1989 . A Capoeira Angola na Bahia , Salvador : EGBA/Fundação das Aries .
   Google Scholar
• Cesara , Manda . 1982 . Reflections of a Woman Anthropologist: No Hiding Place , London : Academic Press .
   Google Scholar
• Clifford , James and Marcus , George E. , eds. 1986 . Writing Culture: The Poetics and the Politics of Ethnography , Berkeley : University of California Press .
   Google Scholar
• Dubisch , Jill . 1995 . “ Lovers in the Field: Sex, Dominance, and the Female Anthropologist ” . In Taboo Edited by: Kulick , Don and Willson , Margaret .
   Google Scholar
• Dunn , Christopher . 1992 . Afro‐Brazilian Carnival: A Stage for Protest . Afro‐Hispanic Review , 11 (1–3) : 11 – 20 .
   Google Scholar
• Fernandes , Florestan . 1978 . A Intagração do Negro em Sociadadede Classe , São Paulo : Atica .
   Google Scholar
• Fontaine , Pierre‐Michel , ed. 1985 . Race, Class and Power in Brazil , Los Angeles : Center for Afro‐American Studies, University of California .
   Google Scholar
• Frankenberg , Ruth . 1993 . White Woman, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness , Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press .
   Google Scholar
• Freyre , Gilberto . 1963 . The Mansions and the Shanties: The Making of Modern Brazil , New York : Alfred A. Knopf . [1936]
   Google Scholar
• Gearing , Jean . 1995 . “ Fear and Loving in the West Indies: Research from the Heart (As Well as the Head) ” . In Taboo Edited by: Kulick , Don and Willson , Margaret .
   Google Scholar
• Geertz , Clifford . 1988 . Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author , Stanford : Stanford University Press .
   Google Scholar
• Hasenbalg , Carlos A. 1985 . “ Race and Socioeconomic Inequalities in Brazil ” . In Race, Class, and Power in Brazil , Edited by: Fontaine , Pierre‐Michel . Los Angeles : Center for Afro‐American Studies, University of California .
   Google Scholar
• Holloway , Thomas . 1993 . Policing Rio de Janeiro: Repression and Resistance in a Nineteenth‐Century City , Stanford : Stanford University Press .
   Google Scholar
• Kulick , Don and Willson , Margaret , eds. 1995 . Taboo: Sex, Identity and Erotic Subjectivity in Anthropological Fieldwork , London : Routledge .
   Google Scholar
• Landes , Ruth . 1970 . “ A Woman Anthropologist in Brazil ” . In Women in the Field , Edited by: Golde , Peggy . Berkeley : University of California Press . [1986]
   Google Scholar
• Lewin , Ellen and Leap , William W. , eds. 1996 . Out in the Field: Reflections of Gay and Lesbian Anthropology , Urbana : University of Illinois Press .
   Google Scholar
• Lewis , J. Lowell . 1992 . Ring of Liberation: Deceptive Discourse in Brazilian Capoeira , Chicago : University of Chicago Press .
   Google Scholar
• Marcus , George E. and Fischer , Michael M.J. 1986 . Anthropology as Cultural Critique: An Experimental Moment in the Human Sciences , Chicago : University of Chicago Press .
   Google Scholar
• McCallum , Cecilia . 1996 . Resisting Brazil: Perspectives on Local Nationalisms in Salvador da Bahia . Ethnos , 61 (3–4) : 207 – 229 .
   Google Scholar
• Morton , Helen . 1995 . “ My ‘Chastity Belt’: Avoiding Seduction in Tonga ” . In Taboo Edited by: Kulick , Don and Willson , Margaret .
   Google Scholar
• Newton , Esther . 1993 . My Best Informant's Dress: The Erotic Equation in Fieldwork . Cultural Anthropology , 8 (1) : 2 – 23 .
   Google Scholar
• Page , Clarence . 1996 . Showing My Color: Impolite Essays on Race and Identity , New York : HarperCollins .
   Google Scholar
• Rabinow , Paul . 1977 . Reflections on Fieldwork in Morocco , Berkeley : University of California Press .
   Google Scholar
• Rego , Waldeloir . 1968 . Capoeira Angda, Ensaio Socio‐Ethnografica , Salvador : Editôria Itapuā .
   Google Scholar
• Sansone , Livio . 1992 . Cor, Classe e Modernidade em Duas Areas da Bahia (Algumas Primeiras Impressōes) . Estudos Afro‐Asiáticos , 23 December : 143 – 173 .
   Google Scholar
• Simpson , Amelia . 1993 . Xuxa: The Mega‐Marketing of Gender, Race, and Modernity , Philadelphia : Temple University Press .
   Google Scholar
• Skidmore , Thomas . 1974 . Black into White: Race and Nationality in Brazilian Thought , New York : Oxford University Press .
   Google Scholar
• Wade , Peter . 1993 . “ Sexuality and Masculinity among Columbia Blacks ” . In Gendered Fields: Women, Men and Ethnography , Edited by: Bell , Diane , Caplan , Pat and Karim , Wazir Jahan . London : Routledge .
   Google Scholar
• Wafer , Jim . 1991 . The Taste of Blood: Spirit Possession in Brazilian Candomblé , Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press .
   Google Scholar
• Whitehead , Tony Larry and Conaway , Mary Ellen , eds. 1986 . Self, Sex and Gender in Cross‐Cultural Fieldwork , Urbana and Chicago : University of Illinois Press .
   Google Scholar
• Winant , Howard . 1994 . Racial Conditions: Politics, Theory, Comparisons , Minneapolis and London : University of Minnesota Press .
   Google Scholar
• My field research on capoeira has been generously funded through two grants from the WennerGren Foundation for Anthropological Research. I wish to thank my capoeira angola teacher for everything he has taught me. This support, that of ‘Maria’ and my other capoeira camarás as well as the generous time given to me by other capoeira mestres in Salvador have made my research possible. I also wish to thank Cecilia McCallum and Edilson Teixeira and the Santos family for their continual hospitality in the field. Don Kulick, Cecilia McCallum, Alejandro Frigerio and Peter Wade made insightful comments on earlier drafts of this paper, a support I greatly appreciate. Thanks also to the anonymous reviewers of this journal for their helpful comments. I also wish to acknowledge the man I call Roberto in this paper, for his courage, his insights and his joy.
   Google Scholar