ABSTRACT
The above extract from a contemporary capoeira journal, reiterates at least three of the powerful myths that have nourished the practitioners’ hunger for history: the remote origins of capoeira; its invention, in Brazil, by maroons; and the disguise of the fight as a dance. The passage illustrates how the history of capoeira is told by many instructors or reproduced in handouts and manuals. The circulation of capoeira myths is however far from being restricted to a close knit group of practitioners uninterested in historical research. On the contrary, this mixture of facts and fiction is frequently reproduced in magazine articles, books and even academic journals and dissertations, which makes it all the more interesting to examine. A brief scrutiny of the core myths about capoeira history will allow us to illuminate some of the basic assumptions they rely on, and start our enquiry into the historical contexts in which they emerged. By myth I understand a rather simplistic view of some specific facet of capoeira history, which glosses over contradictory aspects and deliberately ignores the lack of evidence or even takes no notice of any contrary evidence that disproves what usually are essentialist claims. In some cases fakes-when evidence and sources are deliberately manipulated to conform to pre-conceived ideas-are also part of the arsenal of myth formation.
