Domination and Resistance in Afro-Brazilian Music (English Edition) [Kindle-editie] beoordelingen het boek quotes

Domination and resistance form a dialectic relationship that is essential to understanding Afro-Brazilian music. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this relationship: to form a theoretical framework of domination and resistance based on the history of Afro-Brazilian music, and to use this theory to better understand Afro-Brazilian music itself. This paper seeks to ask, and answer, both theoretical and descriptive questions pertaining to these issues. The theoretical framework utilized here springs directly from the history of Afro-Brazilian music. This theory of domination and resistance focuses on the concepts of choice, power, and creativity. In this context, power refers to the ability of individuals to control their own lives. Power becomes coercive when it seeks to limit the choices of which others are capable. When coercive power is highly asymmetrical, it creates situations of domination. By creating new choices, choices not offered to them by those in power, subordinates are able to resist this domination either directly or indirectly. This creation of choices forms a profound relationship between creativity and resistance. The historical analysis of this paper uses this theoretical framework to investigate domination and resistance in Afro-Brazilian music. Not surprisingly, Afro-Brazilian music was often used as resistance against the domination of white authorities. This resistance had two aspects: survival and transformation, as well as a precondition for these aspects: unity. All of these are seen as resistance because they were choices created by subordinates who refused to accept the choices offered to them. Afro-Brazilian resistance, both within music and without, was met by a set of oppressive tactics: fines, physical punishment, relocation, imprisonment, and death. These tactics were at times successful, at times unsuccessful. They were by far most effective in situations of high surveillance and no individual rights (i.e. slavery). After emancipation in 1888, Afro-Brazilian resistance gradually gained momentum in the Black areas of Rio de Janeiro and other major cities. In the 1930s, new tactics of domination were introduced, which sought to appropriate and co-opt Afro-Brazilian culture and spaces of relative Black autonomy. This introduced new concepts which will be developed in later chapters, such as authenticity, creative resistance against authenticity, and the developments in Black consciousness that were enabled by this creative resistance. This paper is an attempt to broaden, not refute, earlier interpretations of Afro-Brazilian music. It seeks to clearly define the terminology being used, such as domination and resistance, and shows how these concepts can be effectively applied to Afro-Brazilian music. By redefining the terms of the question, new light is shed on old questions of appropriation, authenticity, and resistance. Although this paper is not particularly combative, it provides what could be a valuable contribution to both the theory of domination and the music of Afro-Brazilians.