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Sex and Violence in Brazil: Carnaval, Capoeira, and the Problem of Everyday Life
Author(s) -
Lewis J. Lowell
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1999.26.3.539
Subject(s) - everyday life , opposition (politics) , ethnography , sociology , materialism , gender studies , aesthetics , social life , anthropology , epistemology , politics , art , philosophy , political science , law
I argue that the concept of everyday life should be understood by theorists primarily as a residual category, defined in opposition to marked frames of social interaction. Accordingly, I explore the Brazilian everyday through two kinds of special events: the martial game of capoeira and the well‐known carnaval. Ethnographers of Brazil tacitly acknowledge the elusiveness of the everyday by focusing on certain themes within it. I consider two popular themes: sex and violence. I conclude by asserting, in opposition to materialist positions, that there is an important sense in which mere fantasies (as some people might say) like carnival are more real than everyday life. [Brazil, sex, violence, everyday, carnival, capoeira]