Capoeira: The History of an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art

NOTES 231
31 Coutinho, O ABC, p. 25. For neighbourhood rivalry see also Almeida, Capoeira, A Brazilian Art Form
(Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 1986), p. 120.
32 W.Rego, Capoeira Angola. Ensaio sócio-etnográfico (Salvador: Itapuâ, 1968), pp. 35–6; R.Almeida, ‘O
brinquedo da capoeira’, Revista do Arquivo Municipal, Vol. 7, No. 84 (1942), pp. 155–62; L.R.ieira, O jogo de
capoeira. Cultura popular no Brasil (Rio de Janeiro: Sprint, 1995), pp. 101–2.
33 For a more detailed description see Viana, Quintal de Nagô, pp. 23–7.
34 Tabaroa designates the large straw hat used by the market women, see footnote by F.Abreu in Coutinho, O ABC,
p. 77.
35 Mestre Noronha acknowledges the change of the venue from the Feira do 7 market to the quay, due to the former
being a ‘very dangerous’ area, e.g. prone to violence (Coutinho, O ABC, p. 19).
36 Coutinho, O ABC, pp. 20–1.
37 On gender roles in Afro-Bahian culture, compare T.de Oliveira Pinto, Capoeira, Samba, Candomblé. Afro-
Brasilianische Musik im Recôncavo, Bahia (Berlin: Museum für Völkerkunde, 1991), pp. 34–6.
38 M.Bola Sete mentions five other women that ‘became famous in capoeira’: Júlia Fogareira, Maria
Pernambucana, Maria Cachoeira, Maria Pé no Mato, OdíZlia. See A Capoeira Angola na Bahia (Rio de Janeiro:
Pallas, 1997), pp. 27–8.
39 DiárioPopular, 16.11.1969.
40 Jornal do Brasil, 5.3.1961.
41 This at least is the version told by M.Canjiquinha in A.Moreira (ed.), Canjiquinha, alegria da capoeira
(Salvador: A Rasteira, 1989), p. 29. Canjiquinha also mentions Maria Avestruz and asserts that Palmeirão killed
the famous troublemaker Pedro Porreta.
42 A.L.Cardoso Simões Pires, ‘Escritos sobre a cultura afro-brasileira. A formação histórica da capoeira
contemporânea, 1890–1950 (PhD thesis, History, UNICAMP, 2001), p. 117. This author also mentions the
corrido ‘Dona Maria do Camboatá’ as further evidence of women in capoeira. The verses that explicitly make
her a capoeirista seem, however, to be of recent origin. The ‘traditional’ verses do not clearly assert that she
practised the art.
43 Carneiro, Negros bantos, p. 148; Almeida, ‘O brinquedo da capoeira’.
44 There is ample evidence for the use of balões in early twentieth-century vadiação. See Carneiro, Negros bantos,
p. 10; A.Vianna, Quintal de Nagô e outras crônicas (Salvador: UFBa, 1979), p. 9; M. Pastinha, Capoeira Angola
(Salvador: Fundação Cultural do Estado da Bahia, 1988), pp. 30, 69; Manuscritos e desenhos de Mestre Pastinha
(edited by A.Decanio, Salvador, n.d.), p. 12a. See also F.J. de Abreu, ‘Bimba e Bamba’. A capoeira no ringue
(Salvador: Instituto Jair Moura, 1999) p. 71, footnote 12 and the competent discussion in K.K.Bonates, Iú na
Mandingueira, a ave símbolo da capoeira (Manaus: Fenix, 1999), p. 54. Evidence for the use of balões can also
be found in the photos accompanying C. Tavares, ‘Capoeira mata um!’ (O Cruzeiro, 10.1.1948), pp. 6–14, and the
movie Vadição. According to M.Sodré, Mestre Bimba, corpo de mandinga (Rio de Janeiro: Manati, 2002), p. 69,
one type of balão was called aloandê.
45 For a relation of kicks and other movements used by different mestres in the 1960s, see Rego, Capoeira Angola,
pp. 65–9. See also A.Vianna, Casos e coisas da Bahia (Salvador: Secretaria de Educação e Saúde, 1950),
p. 153.
46 E.Carneiro, ‘Capoeira’, Cadernos de Folclore, No. 1 (Rio de Janeiro: MEC, 1977), p. 20; E.L.Powe, Capoeira &
Congo (Madison, WI: Dan Aiki Publications, 2002) p. 30.
47 See Carneiro, Negros bantos, p. 149; R.Landes, City of Women (New York: Macmillan, 1947), p. 102, Tavares,
‘Capoeira mata um!’, p. 14; Vianna, Quintal de Nagô, p. 9. Rego, Capoeira Angola, p. 87 affirms categorically
that he never saw a ganzá (reco-reco) been played in a capoeira roda. Written evidence on the use of these
instruments and the absence of the atabaque is confirmed by oral history: M.Ferreirinha, Interview, 5.9.1994;
M.Waldemar, Interview by L.R.Vieira, 1989; and recognized by capoeira scholars such as F.Abreu and
B.Almeida (Mestre Accordeon), Á gua de beber, camará! Um Bate-papo de Capoeira (Salvador: Empresa
Gráfica da Bahia, 1999), p. 78.