Mimetic gestures in Capoeira: recognizing and overcoming similarities in the game

Abstract

This essay presents a reading of the dimension of sign language present in the game of capoeira based on the theme of mimesis. We specifically rely on Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer (1985): Elements of anti-Semitism; and in Walter Benjamin (1994), in the text the Doutrina das semelhanças. In the case of an essay, these choices are justified under the auspices of not intending to exegete the theme in these authors, but mainly, because we find, in the specificity of these texts, points that are linked to our proposal announced above. Let's not focus on specific movements, but on the general dimension of the relationship in the game between the players. We work on the border between recognizing and overcoming the similarities exposed in the moment/movement of the game and, for this cultural manifestation, in macro society. In other words, we argue that capoeira, as a micro society, mimetically reflects the macro society in which it is inserted, just as its players mimetically reflect, to a certain extent, in the game, the gestures of the partner with whom they play. In both dimensions, mimesis does not dilute particularities, but rather objectively enhances the establishment of other dimensions in the perception of reality. This mimetic character explains the ambivalence present in the context of capoeira, as resistance and reflection of the other. It is necessary to sublimate, in part, the intentionality of our subjectivities objectified in blows, for the mimetic continuity of gestural assumptions with the other playing partner.