Capoeria

**Inversion** · Posted On: 12/27/2006 5:13pm

Originally Posted by LORD ASIA

How much or Capoeira that is directly African and what was Brazilian (native Brazilians were slaves too) is still a mystery and it doesn't look like its going to be solved anytime soon because many of Africa's arts have died out and there are still some unknowns not shared with foriegners.

There's a video article on an African dance-fight here: http://www.africawrites.com/thismonth1.html

There's at least some superficial similarity to capoeira.

Originally Posted by LORD ASIA

Incorrect. As stated before Capoeira Corioca never had music and it was still labeled as Capoiera. In Nestor Capoeira's books he wrote that the music was a later addition and it didn't come in to around 1830, by then the name Capoeira was already in use. One thing that supports this are paintings that date to the 1700s depict Capoeira but do not show a roda, instruments, etc that is associated with Capoeira now. In contrast Johann Moritz Rugendas painting in 1835 does show a roda and what appears to be pple chanting.

The writing on the history of capoeira appears confused as few writers distinguish between the various styles of capoeira that existed pre-1900. I'm unaware of any references to the Bahian style of capoeira (that modern styles of capoeira are descended from) prior to the early 1900s; it's possible that the lack of music relates just to other styles of capoeira, or that earlier Bahian capoeira lacked music.