{"id":15063,"date":"2011-07-23T01:31:21","date_gmt":"2011-07-23T01:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=15063"},"modified":"2011-10-07T00:32:27","modified_gmt":"2011-10-07T00:32:27","slug":"ddd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=15063","title":{"rendered":"Performative Aspects of Brazilian Music as a Means of Creating Identity in Rio de Janeiro"},"content":{"rendered":"

Performative Aspects of Brazilian Music as a Means of Creating Identity in Rio de Janeiro<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Universit\u00e4t Wien
\nOctober 2008
\n215 pages<\/p>\n

Adriana Ribeiro-Mayer<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Rio de Janeiro\u2019s<\/a> multi-ethnic society with its colonial and slave-based past creating a common identity is a major problem. Standard Portuguese, as opposed to spoken \u201cBrazilian\u201d, is remote to many Brazilians. Therefore, music and dance, the Carnival events and Baile Funk<\/em>, substitute for language-based common performances. They have become extraordinarily big events based on a \u201csincretized\u201d rhythm, on the body and mostly Afro-Brazilian body movements.<\/p>\n

With the help of \u201cparticipant observation\u201d and \u201cero-epic conversation\u201d I tried to participate as closely as possible in numerous events and describe them in performance protocols. These I analyzed according to the concepts of performance theory.<\/p>\n

Richard Schechner\u2019s<\/a> emphasis on deep structures (such as the escola <\/em>rehearsals) and rules; Victor Turners shift from play to ritual; Nicholas Cook\u2019s \u201cprocess-\u201c rather than \u201cproduct-character\u201d of performances and the musical work, e.g. a samba-enredo<\/em>, as giving performers something to perform; Erika Fischer-Lichte\u2019s emphasis on co-presence, interaction and feed-back as well as the body and its expressions; and finally Johan Huizinga\u2019s prediction of a shift in social play, trough rules, competition and the audience to more seriousness. All these concepts of performance theory both proved useful tools, and at the same time were put to an interesting re-evaluation when applied to these mostly Afro-Brazilian events.<\/p>\n

Rio\u2019s Carnival\u2019s counter-world has to fulfill so important and different needs in a divided society that it split to be able to present opportunities for spontaneous play of the individual, e.g. in the street blocos <\/em>and the Intendente Magalh\u00e3es <\/em>parades, and to present a choreographed show of unity and common identity, in the main sambodrome <\/em>parades. Baile Funk <\/em>has so far catered for the first needs, i.e. entertainment and individual expression, as it has not involved all layers of carioca <\/em>society through city-wide events.<\/p>\n

Table of Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n