Dualism, Dominance, and the Art of Capoeira

• In Event: 336 - Section on Body and Embodiment Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Section on Body and Embodiment Roundtables (one-hour). Table 01. Bodies in Motion.

Abstract

Modernity inherently possesses a double bind of progressiveness and barbarism that has plagued social theorists since Nietzsche’s nihilistic turn. The prophetic works of the Frankfurt School and critical theory at large exhibit a commitment to navigating this paradoxical pendulum, but not often do we find historically grounded, theoretical investigations on identity formation, dominance, and governmentality in the making of the African Diaspora and its legacy within the contemporary global sphere. This essay takes two themes—the dualistic paradigm of master/slave as initiated by G.W.F. Hegel and the Afro-Brazilian art form of capoeira—and utilizes them in a critique of historical and contemporary global-modernist development. In associating an empirical narrative with theoretical constructs it seeks to interrogate modernity’s modes of power, acculturation, transnationalization, and cultural homogenization

Author

• Fanon John Howell, University of Massachusetts-Amherst