Contemporary Capoeira in Rio de Janeiro, 1948-1982

卡波耶拉（Capoeira）是一种非裔巴西武术，将歌唱、打击乐与舞蹈、格斗和街头戏剧相结合。两名练习者在由音乐家和其他参与者组成的“圆圈”内玩“游戏”。被奴役的非洲人和克里奥尔人在巴西殖民地和帝国晚期的港口城市发展了这种做法。它在最初的严酷镇压中幸存下来，直到20世纪才被公认为一项民族运动和传统。20世纪30年代至50年代，两种相互竞争的风格促成了它的现代化。在接下来的几十年里，他们融合成目前主流的“当代”风格，现在在世界各地教授和演奏。2008年，卡波耶拉圈和卡波耶拉老师（“大师”）的知识被巴西政府认定为国家非物质文化遗产的组成部分，2014年被联合国教科文组织认定为国家非物质文化遗产。该项目旨在通过收集不同来源的材料，更好地了解这种当代卡波耶拉的出现。它将采访40位幸存的卡波耶拉第一代和第二代大师，他们在20世纪50年代至70年代在“大里约热内卢”负责卡波耶拉新现代风格的发展和扩展-不仅包括市中心，还包括其较贫穷的郊区和边缘地区。该项目还将系统地从当地的声音、图像和报纸档案中进一步收集材料，以补充和证实这些证词。在一些知名和受人尊敬的卡波耶拉大师的帮助下，他们将作为项目顾问，进一步鼓励当地的卡波耶拉社区捐赠材料，如旧采访或照片。收集到的材料将被组织并以数字格式存储在埃塞克斯和巴西里约热内卢的服务器上，与我们的项目合作伙伴，联邦弗鲁米南塞大学口述历史和图像实验室密切合作。被采访的大师们年事已高，在2010年的政治和金融危机中，缺乏一个连贯的计划来拯救这些卡波耶拉历史上至关重要的证词，这使得这个项目更加紧迫。根据我以前的经验，我将提供所需的智力领导，将卡波耶拉大师和实践者，来自不同学科的学者和数字专家聚集在一起，提供一系列可访问的输出，最重要的是创建一个持久和可持续的卡波耶拉数据库。这些原始资料将通过网站提供给注册用户，并将极大地促进其他学者和非专业卡波耶拉历史学家的进一步研究。经过编辑的访谈选集以及附有解释的补充材料将在网站和虚拟展览中提供。大约40个短片将展示这些非常不同的人物和职业的社会和文化背景以及生活故事的概述。它们会让人联想到历史上的卡波耶拉圈子的氛围，并描绘出一个文化丰富但社会和种族分裂的城市。由非洲数字博物馆主办的数字展览将为更广泛的观众提供一个吸引人的结果总结，并将帮助学校教师遵守巴西最近的立法，该立法规定所有中学都必须教授非洲巴西历史。教学也将通过在里约热内卢中心的卡波耶拉记忆遗址及其历史郊区的行程来促进。这个导游将被整合到一个手机应用程序中，以便于访问。大英图书馆、埃塞克斯大学和巴西合作伙伴之间在数据管理、制作数字历史和实现数字传播方面的知识交流将有助于优化项目的研究及其在线可访问性，并有助于开发涉及一系列领域的工作人员的技能。

Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines singing and percussion with dance, combat and street theatre. Two practitioners play a 'game' within a 'circle' formed by the musicians and other participants. Enslaved Africans and Creoles developed the practice in the port cities of late colonial and imperial Brazil. It survived initial harsh repression until being recognised as a national sport and tradition in the twentieth century. Two competing styles were responsible for its modernisation in the 1930s-50s. They merged during the following decades into the current mainstream 'Contemporary' style, now taught and played around the world. The capoeira circle and the knowledge of capoeira teachers ('masters') were recognised by the Brazilian government as integral to the nation's intangible cultural heritage in 2008, and by UNESCO in 2014.The project aims to better understand the emergence of this Contemporary Capoeira by gathering material from different sources. It will conduct interviews with 40 surviving capoeira masters from the first and second generations, responsible for the development and expansion of the new, modernised style of capoeira during the 1950s-70s in 'Greater Rio de Janeiro' - which includes not only the city centre, but also its poorer suburbs and its marginalised periphery. The project will also systematically collect further material from local sound, image and newspaper archives to complement and corroborate these testimonies. With the help of some well-known and respected capoeira masters, who will act as project consultants, it will furthermore encourage the local capoeira community to donate materials such as old interviews or photographs. The collected material will be organised and stored in digital format on servers in Essex and Rio de Janeiro, in close collaboration with our project partner, the Laboratory of Oral History and Image at the Federal Fluminense University. The advanced age of the masters to be interviewed, and the absence of a coherent plan to rescue these crucial testimonies for capoeira history in the current political and financial crisis in Rio make this project all the more urgent.Drawing on my previous experience, I will provide the intellectual leadership needed to bring together capoeira masters and practitioners, academics from various disciplines and digital specialists to deliver a range of accessible outputs, the most important being the creation of a long-lasting and sustainable database on capoeira. This raw material will be made available for registered users via the website, and will significantly facilitate further research by other academics and non-professional capoeira historians. An edited selection of the interviews, and complementary material with explanations will be made available on the website and in a virtual exhibition. Around 40 short clips will present an overview of the social and cultural backgrounds and life stories of these very diverse characters and careers. They will conjure the ambience of historic capoeira circles, and portray a culturally rich but also socially and racially divided city. A digital exhibition hosted by the Afro-Digital Museum will provide an appealing summary of the results for broader audiences, and will help schoolteachers to comply with recent Brazilian legislation that makes the teaching of Afro-Brazilian history compulsory in all secondary schools. Teaching will also be facilitated by an itinerary following the memory sites of capoeira in central Rio and its historical suburbs. This guided tour will be incorporated into a mobile phone app for easier access. A knowledge exchange between staff from the British Library, Essex University and Brazilian partners on data management, making digital history and achieving digital dissemination will help to optimise the project's research and its online accessibility, as well as contributing to the development of skills for the staff involved in a range of areas.