The Gringos’ Batucada: Emerging debates on cultural appropriation in the context of Brazilian popular street music in the 2000s
This article describes the emergence in the 2000s of debates about the globalized appropriation of traditional Brazilian percussion music by mostly amateur members of foreign groups called batucadas (particularly in France or samba schools, blocos, maracatus depending on the musical genre). The noti...
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| Τόπος έκδοσης: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/alterites, |
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| Κύριος συγγραφέας: | |
| Μορφή: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Γλώσσα: | Anglais |
| Έκδοση: |
Appartenances & Altérités
2024
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| Διαθέσιμο Online: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Περίληψη: | This article describes the emergence in the 2000s of debates about the globalized appropriation of traditional Brazilian percussion music by mostly amateur members of foreign groups called batucadas (particularly in France or samba schools, blocos, maracatus depending on the musical genre). The notion of cultural appropriation did not at the time necessarily explicitly belong to an accusatory rationale. However, the observation of situations in the musical field in which a transmission occurred between legitimate owners of the music and learners, whether foreign tourists or Brazilians from outside the traditional community, already revealed conflicts and strategies on both sides of the “exchange”. Ethnographic observation, carried out as part of my PhD between 2004 and 2009 revealed the emergence of heated and sometimes intractable arguments about opposing conceptions of culture, and more specifically identified a vague feeling of plunder overlying inequalities of class and race. Cultural appropriation is described in practical occurrences in the field, and the problems it raises cause us to re-examine contemporary cultural issues. What is a cultural tradition? Why is it coveted by foreigners? How does the concept of intangible culture reinforce the phenomenon of appropriation? In this article, I attempt to show how the problem of cultural appropriation can be approached and observed on different scales and from different perspectives, while avoiding the risk of essentializing culture. |
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