A capoeira: configurações históricas e contemporâneas no digital

Abstract

This thesis investigates the historical and contemporary configurations of Capoeira in the digital environment, based on an analysis of documentaries about Capoeira masters published on YouTube, as well as the integration of Capoeira into digital spaces during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study is based on the understanding that social distancing has driven the migration of traditionally in-person practices to digital platforms, expanding the ways in which Capoeira is taught, practiced, shared, and preserved. The research begins with the following question: To what extent can the integration of Capoeira into digital environments facilitate the construction, preservation, and reframing of its ancestry? This is a qualitative study grounded in the contributions of Pierre Lévy (2009) to the understanding of cyberculture and cyberspace; Michael Renov (2021), to help us reflect on the relationships between selfrepresentation and documentaries; and Massimo Canevacci on self-representation in the context of digital culture. In the areas of culture and representation, we draw on the theoretical framework of Stuart Hall (2016), who, together with Ciampa (1984), has also helped us understand identities. To understand ancestry in Capoeira, we draw on the following authors: Eduardo Oliveira (2003), Leite (1984), Rego (2015), and Munanga (as cited in J. Oliveira, 2009). The historiography of Capoeira drew upon, among others, the following authors: Campos (2001), Nestor (2006), Abib (2018), Azevedo (2017), and Soares (1998) and Junior (2005). The analysis of the documentaries was based on the Content Analysis (CA) technique developed by Laurence Bardin (2012). The research corpus consisted of six (6) documentaries featuring Capoeira masters available on YouTube, supplemented by videos of nine (9) Capoeira masters who practice both in-person and online. The results show that digital spaces are increasingly establishing themselves as important environments for the production, sharing, and preservation of memory and ancestral heritage, fostering the dissemination of knowledge and the strengthening of networks among capoeiristas. It is concluded that the integration of Capoeira into digital environments has led to a reinterpretation of the ways in which practitioners experience, share, and transmit their ancestral heritage, without compromising its traditional foundations. On the contrary, the research demonstrates that this cultural expression has historically shown the ability to adapt to social and technological transformations, while preserving the centrality of the roda, oral tradition, and communal interaction as structural elements of its practice. At the same time, it has incorporated new possibilities for interaction, learning, and the circulation of knowledge, reaffirming Capoeira as a living, dynamic cultural heritage in a constant process of reinvention, without losing its historical identity and ancestral values.