Capoeira, the Brazilian dance-fight-game, has spread across the world since the 1970s. It has become a popular leisure activity for many people, and a career for many Brazilians in countries as diverse as China and Spain, and as geographically distant from Brazil as New Zealand and Finland. This ethnographic research conducted on capoeira in the UK is not only an in-depth investigation of one martial art, but also provides rich data on masculinities, performativity, embodiment, globalization, rites of passage and tournaments of value, as well as an enhanced discussion of methods and methodology.

Sara Delamont is a Reader in Sociology at Cardiff University, UK.

Neil Stephens is a Research Fellow in Social Sciences at Brunel University, UK.

Claudio Campos is a Brazilian mestre in Capoeira, working in the UK.

1. Do you know Capoeira? Introduction

Part I: Initial Encounters

2. Anybody Can Learn It: Becoming a Capoeira Student

3. Freedom is the Lamp of the Masters: Becoming a Diasporic Capoeira Teacher

4. The Masters Put on a Show: Capoeira Festivals as Tournaments of Value and Rites of Passage

Part II: Serious Engagements

5. Born in the Slave Quarters: A History of Capoeira

6. All Parts of the Body: Changing Embodiment in Capoeira

7. Malicia, Axé and Mandinga: Tacit Skills and Knowledge

8. All the World is on the Move: Mobilities and their Meanings

9. Dreaming Brazil: Capoeira 'Here' and 'There'

10. Conclusions: An Untranslatable Brazilian Term?

Appendix 1. Methods

Appendix 2. Briefing Notes and Glossary

Appendix 3. Audio Visual and other Resources