Becoming a Capoeirista: A Situational Approach to Interpreting a Foreign Cultural Good*

Abstract

In this manuscript, I examine an understudied mechanism that shapes audience reception and reinterpretation of foreign cultural objects—local interactional situations. I present a case study of how this situation of interaction shapes how one group of students in the United States constructs the meanings of capoeira—a Brazilian martial art. Participant observation data reveal that neither students’ personal motives as consumers nor broad “American” cultural codes fully explain capoeira culture in this group. Instead, capoeira students in this group reinterpret capoeira through a strict style of interaction, which produced a “preservationist” capoeira culture—hierarchical, conformist, and rigidly bound as “Brazilian.” This culture becomes concerned with preservation because it allows them to maintain their shared ground for interaction.