Mama Africa : Reinventing Blackness in Bahia PDF
by de Santana Pinho Patricia de Santana Pinho
Description
Pinho explores how Bahian cultural production influences and is influenced by black diasporic cultures and the idealization of Africa-to the extent that Bahia draws African American tourists wanting to learn about their heritage. Analyzing the conceptions of blackness produced by the blocos afro, she describes how Africa is re-inscribed on the body through clothes, hairstyles, and jewelry; once demeaned, blackness is reclaimed as a source of beauty and pride. Turning to the body's interior, Pinho explains that the myth of Mama Africa implies that black appearances have corresponding black essences. Musical and dance abilities are seen as naturally belonging to black people, and these traits are often believed to be transmitted by blood. Pinho argues that such essentialized ideas of blackness render black culture increasingly vulnerable to exploitation by the state and commercial interests. She contends that the myth of Mama Africa, while informing oppositional black identities, overlaps with a constraining notion of Bahianness promoted by the government and the tourist industry.
Information
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Download - Immediately Available
- Format:PDF
- Pages:280 pages
- Publisher:Duke University Press
- Publication Date:25/01/2010
- Category:
- ISBN:9780822391760
Information
-
Download - Immediately Available
- Format:PDF
- Pages:280 pages
- Publisher:Duke University Press
- Publication Date:25/01/2010
- Category:
- ISBN:9780822391760