Are you ready for the World Cup?

I know everybody is talking about Brazil at the moment, so I thought I'd give an update as the World Cup approaches this coming month. I will arrive in Bahia on July 3 and be there for the quarter, semi and final rounds. I'm looking forward to getting a better sense of how people respond to the games and the event as they happen. For now, I can only write about what I see and understand from a distance regarding the anticipation of and preparation for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

The bottom line is that, it's not going well. Massive protests to government spending and mismanagement have swelled especially in São Paulo, Brasília, Rio de Janeiro and other cities throughout the country. A recent study showed that only 22% of Brazilians will even root for their national team (a statistic I have a very hard time believing). This public mural has gone viral as the simple message presents a Brazil unwilling to face its true problems of poverty, income inequality, and access to resources while graciously preparing for foreign media and visitors.

Mural by Paulo Ito

On Tuesday groups of indigenous peoples and their supporters protested outside of the newly constructed arena in Brasília, a stadium that cost $1.2 billion (USD) of federal spending. The protestors were met with tear gas, rubber bullets, and violent police repression. This looks a lot like the response to protests last year during the Confederations Cup, but the iconography of this protest and the symbolic messages of oppressed peoples uniting against government corruption are particularly striking.

Image source

Not to mention the incredibly violent military invasions of favelas in attempts to restructure and "sanitize" the city of Rio de Janeiro. I still don't understand the breakdown of all the different types of police units, but clearly the municipal and federal governments are in on displacing thousands of families from their prime real estate homes, as quickly as possible. Because favelas are squatter communities, they have precarious land rights, and are often the first to be displaced as disempowered communities. The urgency put on by the strict timetables of FIFA and the disorganization of infrastructural development throughout Brazil has left many families in vulnerable situations. They are being violently forced out of the way in order to construct new highways, hotels and parking lots to receive international tourists and teams.

Meanwhile in the United States I'm seeing various corporate manifestations of Brazil's comoditized image. I walk into an athletic store and see a Nike ad using Brazil's soccer repute to sell cleats. On ESPN I see a commercial of young Afro-Brazilian women walking through colorful favelas to promote tourism and a gritty yet sexy Brazil. Drunken partiers wear Brazil's national t-shirts at Bay to Breakers, flags are sold as accessories at Forever 21. iTunes sells the official album of the World Cup, with shockingly few Brazilian artists featured. I think these and numerous other examples point to the obvious question of who wins and who loses from such international sporting events (hint: the U.S. soccer team is not the only loser).

Politically, this all looks incredibly bad for Dilma and PT (the leading Worker's Party) in the upcoming federal elections in October. When former president Lula agreed to host both the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, undoubtedly he envisioned celebrations and success that would bolster his party's credibility and notoriety. The opposite could not be more true. In a truly multi-party political system such as Brazil, I would not be surprised if an alternative candidate rose in opposition to Dilma in the wake of this mismanaged World Cup fiasco. That being said, I do not claim to have great political expertise or foresight in this matter.

Despite all of this mess, I'm still rooting for Brazil and am almost certain they will win the World Cup by merit or otherwise... If they don't, I can only image the anger and mobilization that might follow such failure and disappointment. It will be an interesting summer.



Want to read more?

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_spot/2014/05/20/paulo_ito_world_cup_a_brazilian_street_artist_has_created_the_world_cup.html

http://revolution-news.com/armed-state-uniforms-wage-open-war-brazils-poor-largest-favela-occupied-2-kids-killed-37-arrested-en-mass/

http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2014/04/16/marc_ohrem_leclef_olympic_favela_documents_the_brazil_s_slum_residents_being.html

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/5/22/brazils_dance_with_the_devil_dave

Leaving Bahia (for now)

This year+ experience in Brazil has been extremely rewarding and important for me to revise and rethink previous notions I had regarding Brazilian academia and how to transit within it. Not only did I lack a theoretical foundation (which I will continue to build at the University of Michgan) but also practical experience as a “gringa” within this field. I had considered the power dynamics between myself as a researcher and my subjects, but not necessarily between my academic colleagues.

Throughout my classes at CEAO and research I have become a bit baffled by the concept of Feminist Anthropology, especially in Brazil. It appears to me that nobody knows exactly what it means, yet many are chasing after it, trying to find some sort of militant discussion of gender, of women, of sexuality in order to get past common sense notions of separation and difference between the “sexes”. Yet in this field I’ve encountered politics typical of any site of power and competition for career success that do not necessarily value the production of knowledge or consensus as linked to any sort of social movement/basis.

My relationship with fellow students however has been generally positive. I found it was easiest to connect with people from my own positioning (despite my foreign nationality), my own generation and I feel we have a common interest in treating each other with kindness and respect, to help one another in producing the best work possible. I am optimistic in this respect, and have faith in the possibilities for change as we grow and seek common goals to direct academia towards living subjects and think about the consequences of representation within an educated and diverse society.

As for my ethnography, I am still in the process of preparation. My M.A. project will stick closer to historical research utilizing letters and photos that explain Landes’ fieldwork experience in Brazil, and then place her legacy within the context of Brazilian anthropology. I believe this to be a feasible task, and will expand the project further as I develop my Ph.D. research, which as of now will probably include ethnography of gender and sexuality in Afro-American religions such as candomblé.

I’ve created significant relationships within the candomblé community, not as strictly informants, but academic students themselves, friends of friends, and new acquaintances.  However, the religion itself presents many difficulties as a field of study. I believe it to be extremely important to understand the history of academia within terreiros and how they have negotiated relationships with the public over the past century. Not only are these power dynamics important to consider, but the actual functioning of the spiritual forces within candomblé present different obstacles and considerations. It’s absolutely necessary to understand how the people in the religion interpret your presence and your possible place within their cosmology as a foreigner, as a researcher. This exercise is much more delicate and at times abstract, requiring sensitivity and time to consider various perspectives in relation to your specific research objectives. Having the luxury of time (about 15 months) has allowed me to dive into these methodological questions with the intention of creating and executing a worthwhile project in the near future.

As of now, I’m off to begin my Ph.D. at the University of Michigan in a joint History and Anthropology program with advisor Paul C. Johnson. I’ll return to Bahia from May – August 2014 to finish up my M.A. research and plan on continuing with this blog whenever relevant.

Oh, I’ve also been published in Portuguese, if you’re interested take a look http://www.prp.ueg.br/revista/index.php/revistahistoria/article/view/1585 .  It’s a translated and revised version of my undergraduate History thesis regarding the relationship between Edison Carneiro and Ruth Landes.

Thank you to my readers, and please keep in touch!

Grande abraço,

ajamie@umich.edu

World wide events and their protests in Brazil

Over the past few months Brazil has been gearing up for several international events as the country becomes more and more relevant in the rhetoric of development as "a growing world power". In a series of country-wide protests last month the entire world saw how such rhetoric backfired during the 2013 Confederations Cup, which failed as a sort of test drive for the much anticipated 2014 World Cup. Hundreds of thousands of mostly young, and I will argue, middle class protestors in nearly ever big city (and smaller cities in solidarity) stood up against the contradictions of development and the failure of the Brazilian government to serve its people with basic necessities.

These protests have been widely covered by major, international news sources so I will not repeat the basics, but rather explain my point of view on the uprisings as a platform to discuss not only the particularities of this Brazilian case, but also to connect the movement to similar manifestations that have been occurring since the Arab Spring in 2010.

Protest in Salvador, Bahia. June 27, 2013. I was surprised by the socio-economic make-up of the protest. In all honesty, I had never seen so many white, middle-class Bahians in one place together on the street. Usually the social make-up in Salvador is very different, and I didn't feel like the movement was particularly representative of the poor, working class of Brazil but rather the young, university students who represent a privileged position in relation to the majority of Bahians. In any case, they were standing up for justice and causes that, if listened to and reacted upon, would benefit everybody. 

Since arriving in Brazil (this time) in July 2012 I have been keeping my eye on FIFA and major corporations that sponsor FIFA in order to see their power and interventions in Brazil as they prepare for this major event in a country that has very little infrastructure to support it (see my post on Acarajé, Coca Cola, and FIFA). Since the early phases of preparation FIFA has expressed deep concern and doubt regarding Brazil's readiness and ability to complete all the necessary tasks and facilitate the influx of investment and tourism in order to successfully carry out the event. This appears all too obvious for me, and for many Brazilians, who love soccer and love the World Cup, but who see that the major cities are dirty, unorganized, dangerous and fully unequipped to host tourists in large numbers. If the city, state and federal governments cannot even facilitate transportation and traffic for its own citizens (the subway in Salvador, for example, has been in construction for 13 years and is still not running due to a series of engineering and organization snafus, while public money is blatantly being eaten up by corrupt politicians), then how will the host cities function during the events? And even if security and transportation are miraculously sufficient during the particular day or week to host visitors in a particular city, does that mean it will stay that way and help facilitate the day-to-day struggles faced by Brazilian workers and students? The protestors say no, with great reason. They say Brazil's focus is not on improving the health, education and infrastructure for Brazilians, but instead to invest in an idealized image of Brazil focused on it's culture of parties, music and open arms to brand to tourists. When the tourists go home and leave their party mess behind, the government will not clean up the mess but instead the people will walk through trash-filled streets, sit in hours of traffic to get to and from work, and pay high taxes for everyday consumer products.

A Coca Cola ad in Salvador, Bahia. During the Confederations Cup Coke launched a campaign entitled "Together, lets color Brazil". They were offering spray paint and stencils with Coke images and messages, encouraging neighborhood residents to "color their streets" as a sort of decoration to receive tourists with an iconic Brazilian vibrance. Photo by author.

Since 2010, much attention has been given to the "social networking" tactics of major protests in various cases throughout the world (including Arab Spring, the Occupy movement, and more recent protests in Turkey). This was certainly an important tactic in Brazil, as hundreds of thousands of people were mobilized largely through internet forums and networking between young adults. Although this strategy may have changed the focus and scope of the protests, I don't think it is particularly surprising as most of us access important messages and information through the internet world-wide. However, with such broad participation and space for free expression, it appears people interpret the "movement" as an abstract moment to propagate their own concerns regarding a variety of issues. In Brazil it started as a "free pass" movement for bus fare, and quickly escalated to include issues such as homophobia, healthcare, education and political corruption. People can access the movement and participate from their homes regardless of their social position or stance, contributing material freely without ever participating in a formal meeting or even going to the streets to protest. I believe this contributes to the size of the protests, but also to the apparent disorientation of the messages. It also allows small sectors, sometimes violent, to intervene and sometimes dominate the public image of the movement without the agreement of the movement as a whole. In this way, I felt parallels to my experience in and later frustration with the Occupy Movement in 2012 (where I participated at UC Berkeley and in Oakland). 

Although protests died down after the Confederations Cup in early July, they have sparked again in response to Pope Francis' visit to Rio de Janeiro. He is the first South American Pope to visit his own continent in honor of "World Youth Day" and has been deemed the "Pope of the People" calling to the poor, which is a popular and historic message directed towards Brazil's massive Catholic population. Once again, as a response to the incredible public spending for the Pope's visit (which has also attracted a world-wide pilgrimage of young Catholics to Brazil, aka more tourists), protestors are going to the streets. The media has unsurprisingly focused on the violence of the protests, while others have taken this event to confront Brazil and the Church's homophobia with public displays of homosexual romance on church steps. As a host to internationally relevant events such as these, and more to come in the near future (including the actual World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro), I doubt such protests will subside unless some real structural changes are made on the part of the Brazilian government and their relations with major corporate investors. Brazilians have made it clear to FIFA and their own politicians that such lavish public spending will not be accepted laying down.

Within these many struggles, there has been a small victory on the part of the Bahiana vendors and their association ABAM, which through a series of petitions and negotiations have won their right to sell acarajé in a privileged area of the Fonte Nova Stadium during the World Cup in Salvador. However, they are still prohibited by the stadium's corporate sponsors from selling acarajé during regular season games. I look forward to following these development projects and international events as a side interest to my particular research project with the Center for Afro-Oriental Studies at the Federal University of Bahia.

June Parties

June is a delightful month in Bahia, there are many saint holidays, popular parties and celebrations (including São João and Brazilian Valentine's Day). The weather is cooler with intermittent rain storms, which is a relief after months and months of heat, sun and humidity. In the candomblé community, June is the month of public parties, as terreiros host open events in celebration of specific gods (orixás), which sometimes align with Christain saint's holidays. In service of my research, I have been attending these "parties", and opening up a new phase in my research experience.

In the past three weeks I've been to 3 parties at different terreiros -- Gantois, Casa Branca and Casa Oxumarê in Salvador. The parties have similar structures, depending on the orixá being honored and the general layout of the house. All parties include possession in the form of a "dance" facilitated by participants with several different roles, some of which appear to be divided by gender (but only through ethnographic interviews will I be able to better understand this potential division). In general, men (ogãs) play the percussion which "call" the gods in yoruba chants to be incorporated by the possessed "dancers" (I use quotations as rough translations of concepts difficult to express). I was interested in the role of the ekedis, who are the women that accompany the possessed and take care of them as they scream, cry, twitch, sweat, or run towards the door. They pat their sweaty foreheads, pick up pieces of clothing as they fall on the ground, give them hugs (carinhos), and generally guide them as they are driven by the spiritual force. This role appears particularly motherly, and necessary to maintain order of the ritual.

The decorations and adornments for the parties are striking. There are so many details, I could observe for years and not see (let alone understand) every intentional color, placement, object, accessory and article of clothing. Photographs are understandably prohibited, so I can only describe from a long-exposed mental picture. The color scheme and general theme are determined by the orixá being honored. The party for oxóssi, for example, focused on hunting, greenery and forestry. There were animal skins on the walls, bows-and-arrows, flowers and plants that created a fresh, green aroma. In one of the houses there was a large altar for oxóssi in the middle of the room, where the possessed would dance around in a circle. There was a painting of him-- a strong, dark warrior man with flowers all around him. The altar was encircled by old, regal wooden chairs where the possessed would take turns resting in a sort of musical chairs.

A general image of the orixá, oxóssi

I want to call the clothing "costumes" without undermining their spiritual and ritual purpose, but they certainly create a spectacle. As far as I could tell (and these assumptions are subject to change), the first round of dancing/possession is not for the honored god, but rather his/her "friends" to sort of warm up the party. The clothing is simple "baiana" dress, including long white dresses, skirts, as well as wraps/scarves, necklaces, head turbans coordinated with their god's color. In general, the possessed are women, with only a few male participants. The second round, however, is quite different. All at once a line of elaborately adorned men and women enter the room in honor of the orixá for that particular party. They use accessories associated with each orixá (for example, bows and arrows, masks, head pieces, staffs) and each is dressed specifically within the particular theme for the god. As this limited description shows, it is quite an affair.

My experience in these spaces have left me with many new research questions and directions, including, what is the value of studying gender in these rituals? My real interest lies in the social life of candomblé practitioners, begging the question, do the gender roles in candomblé have an effect on greater bahian society? The structure of the religion is different with every house, tradition, "nation", so it is dangerous to make any overarching conclusions. However, any way you look at it, these introductions into the world of candomblé have been incredibly interesting and useful in diving further into the field of my research, and exposing me to an entirely different world of spirituality.

Candomblé on Facebook

Last week I met with a local pai-de-santo ("Father of the Saint", or male leader of a candomblé terreiro) and discussed various aspects of the religion, his personal history, opinions on Ruth Landes and on gender roles in the religious hierarchy/leadership. It was a very interesting conversation, which I think lasted for about 2 hours and went in various directions to deepen my understanding (or at least my questions) on the subject.

As is very common today in Brazil (and throughout the world), I got in touch with him through facebook (after meeting through a mutual friend). There's an interesting phenomenon in Brazil in that access to internet has expanded incredibly throughout the country, but cell phone services are still very expensive. In general people use pre-paid phone plans and most of the time have little to no credit to make calls. In addition, calls between different operators are about 5x more expensive than between the same operator, so if two people don't use the same one, it's almost impractical to make a phone call. This, amongst various entertaining and time-sucking factors, encourage people to stay online and chat on Facebook to make plans, chit chat, keep in touch, etc.

Throughout our conversation, the pai-de-santo (I am keeping him anonymous for the purposes of this blog entry) kept mentioning other "houses" of candomblé, main religious figures and other references I was unaware of. Most of the names and symbols are in the West African language, Yoruba, which made it even more difficult for me to take notes and keep up (I am actually starting a Yoruba class later today so I can understand more of these conversations and the symbolism used in the religious chants and nominations). In order to explain and demonstrate the references, he turned to Facebook, which was already open on his computer during the entire conversation.

I was (perhaps wrongfully) surprised to see that beyond his personal Facebook "friends" he browsed through various pages of big, well-known terreiros in Salvador that have come up numerous times in my research. They had pictures of the house itself (a sacred space), mães and pais-de-santos, historical photos of the terreiro, and various political campaigns against religious intolerance and especially in response to a recent move by a city councilman in Salvador to prohibit the sacrifice of animals in the candomblé religion in the name of animal rights (a big scandal and honestly, a ridiculous request for anybody know understands the practice of this religion that has been threatened and persisted for centuries in Brazil).

https://www.facebook.com/casadeoxumare

When I saw this, and other houses/associations of candomblé on Facebook, I at first sort of laughed at myself, thinking "wow, even candomblé is on facebook". Then I thought to myself how incredibly useful this would be in my research, as a wealth of information and even contact to the houses I hope to further collaborate with. Sure, it's selected information and images for public display, but the fact they are accessible to this extent is exciting and encouraging in its own way.

The more I thought about my initial surprise and critique of their presence on Facebook, the more I began to deconstruct my own ideas and expectations about the religion, which on the surface level are very much grounded in a primitivist mindset, or a desire to freeze candomblé in a time of Slavery and 19th Century Africa. As somebody with friends who practice candomblé, who has lived in Salvador for almost two years now and has seen the reality of technology, modernity, capitalist development and lifestyle, why would this be surprising? Do I expect people of a certain religion to live in a certain historical time, peripheral to global developments and innovations? Where do these expectations come from and why, after so many studies and conversations on this subject, do I still have a shameful gut reaction?

My attempts to root out deeply engrained notions of a primitive or exotic "other" is a constant project for me as a developing anthropologist, as popular notions reinforced by the media or pure ignorance on a subject (and how could one really be adequately informed on all the "other" cultures foreign to our own in the world?) inform my conceptions rather than a more logical practice of recognizing a global "we" and shared experiences in a constantly changing world.

Inauguration of the Fonte Nova World Cup Stadium

The inauguration of the awaited Fonte Nova (which literally translated means "New Source") stadium in Salvador welcomed big singers and artists from Salvador including Ivete Sangalo, Claudia Leite, and Margareth Menezes. It also hosted the first game between the two rival teams of Salvador -- Bahia and Victória (Victória won with a landslide 5-1 victory, pleasing many fans and certainly causing brawls amongst rivals).

Source: esportes.terra.com.br 

Despite the presence of these famous singers, soccer stars, and president Dilma herself, the inauguration on the morning of Friday 4/5 attracted another significant sector of the people of Salvador, the bahianas of acarajé. In a protest against FIFA's prohibition of the sale of their traditional afro-brazilian food, alternative news sources noted that about 50 bahianas protested at the gates of the newly completed Fonte Nova stadium. They marched with signs demanding their rights and freedom to sell their food and take advantage of the influx of foreign visitors and investments for the Confederation and World Cups.

Source: Paulo Cesar Reis, ABAM

The bahianas have created a petition and their association, ABAM (Associação de Bahianas de Acarajé e Mingau), is fighting against FIFA to secure their spot as benefactors of the World Cup. I have visited the ABAM office in Pelourinho, Salvador and am scheduled to have an interview in the coming weeks regarding their struggle and their opinions on this World Cup development in Brazil. I find this story to be fascinating and highly relevant, so I am pursuing it as a sort of side interest to my main research. Stay tuned for updates!

News Sources:

(note mainstream sources such as Globo Esportes and A Tarde did not cover the bahiana's protest, but rather the presence of famous singers to inaugurate the stadium)

http://www.portal2014.org.br/noticias/11548/NO+DIA+DA+INAUGURACAO+DA+FONTE+NOVA+BAIANOS+PROTESTAM+PELO+ACARAJE.html

http://www.acordacidade.com.br/noticias/105455/baianas-do-acaraje-fazem-manifestacao-em-frente-a-arena-fonte-nova.html

https://www.facebook.com/pages/ABAM-Associação-das-Baianas-de-Acarajé/181638245253165?fref=ts

International Women's Day

"Women: Poetry, beauty, tenderness, intelligence, dedication, intensity and love. To you, every day." from Antônio Neto, Finance Secretary

I wanted to give a little update from Brazil on the passing of the International Women's Day. It is a highly discussed holiday in Brazil, though it lacks the expected partying and leisure associated with most holidays. Like Black Awareness Day, International Women's Day is a normal workday and more of a consciousness raising campaign than anything else. I was a bit underwhelmed by the amount of activities available in Bahia. There were a few book readings and film series offered by libraries in Salvador but in general I've just seen billboards, facebook posts and banners around celebrating women. They use overarching, bland phrase like "we love you, women warriors" or "respect women today, and every day" with a backdrop of pink and flowers. Overall I find it to be a lot of empty rhetoric and very little action.

That being said, I am more aware of this international holiday since living in Brazil. In the United States it appears to be celebrated only amongst progressives or feminists. Growing up I didn't even know March 8 had significance for women's movements, maybe because in practice it actually doesn't. The "One Billion Rising" mobilization initiated by Eve Ensler on V-Day seemed to exemplify real social intervention with the potential for results. I did see a bit of sympathetic participation in One Billion Rising on Valentine's Day in Brazil, though the momentum didn't quite match since Feb. 14 is not Valentine's Day, which is actually called "Boyfriend/Girlfriend's Day" (Dia dos Namorados) celebrated in June.

There is a fairly impressive scholarship on women's issues and feminist theory in Bahia, and I did have the pleasure of getting passed a reading list (in the spirit of International Women's Day) which could help me push my ideas of gender roles and women's movements in Bahia further. More to come...