Bunt, gra, taniec. Wokół początków capoeiry

Abstract

The article presents the most popular theories of the origins of capoeira, focusing on main meaning of this sport: the protest, the play and the dance. The capoeira is a Brazilian martial art, which combines elements of dance, acrobatics, music and game. It is nowadays very popular in both Americas and Europe (including Poland), but primarily it was only an art of African slaves and lower classes in Brazil. It is not well known how the capoeira came into existence, but the most popular of the theories emphasizes the role of the rebellion of the African slaves against white rulers of Brazil. In this theory capoeira was an idea of fighting without any weapon and the role of dance and music was to hide the rebellious character of the martial art. Even if this theory is not convincing, it is still one of the most attractive elements of the philosophy of capoeira and it creates a romantic myth of this martial art.