Final Considerations

being a good player; he must also master music. The origin and history of the purchased berimbau is also a differentiating element. Special care is also taken with the transport covers, which are customized by their owners as another element of identification

6) Special classes or workshops with renowned masters. The community of capoeira is full of world-renowned masters, some of them precursors of contemporary regional capoeira who are still alive. Taking a special class or attending a workshop with them brings status to the capoeirista. This may explain the race for pictures and selfies with the masters that happens at the end of each event. This collection of photos works as proof of the capoeiristas’

curriculum.

Although capoeira and capoeiristas – both instructors and students – are understood to be the same everywhere, there is a concern with the proliferation of a mass and commercial capoeira that ceases to keep and appreciate capoeira’s cultural values. It is also common sense, that the connection to Brazil may fade away a bit in the process, but not entirely. There are some aspects of Brazilian-ness, such as the joy, the fun, the “street smarts” in playing, and the group hosting, that are deeply rooted in capoeira.

Brazilians who have immigrated are thankful for capoeira, but are frustrated by Brazil’s treatment and lack of support of its own cultural product, both institutionally and marketwise. However, they hope that the international consumption will add status and recognition back home as well. “It is done. Capoeira is of the world, it will no longer be from Brazil. Only then, it will start its way back, and capoeira will finally get recognition in Brazil” (INT07).

2011), but at the same time, they need a common repertoire that gives meaning to their consumption choices. Thus, in the process of interpreting, appropriating, and adopting these cultural activities by the new host audience, cultural products end up suffering adaptations and adjustments (Ayoama, 2007; Bock & Borland, 2011; Huang, 2011; Valdina, 2017). Sometimes, modifications are so intense that the cultural product is no longer recognized by its donor culture, as happened to yoga (Valdina, 2007).

This raises the question of authenticity in the worldwide trade of cultural products. “Adaptations” would allegedly stain the authenticity of a product, but since this concept is socially constructed and highly volatile, producers and consumers develop mechanisms of authentication (Koontz, 2010; Kreuzbauer & Keller, 2017;

Newman & Smith, 2016; Peterson, 2005), and make clear the distinction between original and authentic (Urquía, 2004).

In the capoeira internationalization process, we also find ways of authentication, validated by both Brazilians and foreigners. The producers’ agency control and intentionality are key, and no matter their nationality, and in fact, above it, they are all capoeiristas and, therefore, responsible for keeping it “real”. At least for now, membership status through the accumulation of capoeira cultural capital, and tradition and heritage through the valorization of the Portuguese language, the same rituals, and the presence of some elements of Brazilian-ness, such as joy, “street smarts”, ginga and conviviality, are the authentication strategies we found.

Although the recurrent discourse is that capoeira “in the routes” is the same capoeira of its roots, we clearly found adjustments, made by both its producers and its consumers, in order to better adapt it to the new foreign audiences. Technically, capoeira and capoeiristas are the same, and the broad definition of capoeira allows different expressions to be capoeira. But, just as happened to flamenco, the first Brazilian capoeiristas abroad also reinforced the dance aspect of capoeira, as a competitive differential to position it in the international market. Clearly, it is the music and the fluid movements that differentiate capoeira from martial arts and self-defence activities.

Differently from flamenco – and from Japan-mania and the hallyu – capoeira has received no state support to go abroad. More than that: capoeiristas have had to emigrate because they could not manage to live from their art in Brazil. Brazilian capoeirista immigrants are left behind by their own, even though they consider themselves to be spreading Brazil’s identity and awareness throughout the world.

Whenever it happens, institutional support comes from local associations that promote worldwide culture. Brazilians feel disappointed when they rather affirm that “capoeira is from the world”, and so they wait for the opportunity to see a reversal, when capoeira will come back home, internationally famous. But they also feel proud of their Brazilian identity, since it is what gives them the exotic appeal and the instant value of foreign-ness.

Consumers have also made adaptations, such as valuing hierarchy not based on life stories, but on the teaching process. Similar to jazz (Peterson, 2005), salsa (Urquía, 2014), and belly dancing (Bock & Borland, 2011) there is a general agreement that anyone who is trained in the tradition and has the skill to play has an equal right to do and to teach capoeira. Authenticity no longer depends on ethnic appearance or nationality, but on certifiable knowledge, skill, and experience.

Therefore, capoeira know-how is no longer restricted to Brazilians. A new generation of foreign high-ranked capoeiristas are training and coordinating their own work in their places of origin, already competing with Brazilians who moved abroad to disseminate capoeira practice. Yes, there is still perceived to be a certain “magic” in a Brazilian capoeirista, but the evidence shows that to be from Brazil is no longer enough to sustain a differential of these Brazilian capoeiristas on the market, which is now more competitive overseas. Committed foreigner capoeiristas assimilate enough of Brazilian culture, and thus legitimate themselves within the community as keepers of this knowledge. This seems to be more than sufficient as credibility to the consumers of these markets, as well as more convenient, since the access (to areas, local incentives, mobilization of groups, and language, among others) is facilitated.

The professionalization, the de-territorialization, and the commercialization of capoeira are seen as potential forces to lead capoeira in a process of “yogalization”, although capoeiristas doubt this would happen. The cost of giving away the advantage

of being perceived as foreign may outweigh any potential benefits brought by radical market adaptation.

Nativity is indeed no longer an authentication seal to cultural products anymore. In the case of capoeira, the diasporic characteristic of its internationalization may have postponed it somewhat, but nowadays capoeira “belongs to the world”. The foreign value is of interested to both producers and consumers. It will be kept and guarded by the new generation of foreign masters and instructors, who will follow and value the authentication strategies.

We understand that the conduction of a specific study with masters or instructors and students from groups that were created abroad, with no connection to a Brazilian group or master, will help enrich the conclusions we have made here. It would be important to understand which are their authentication strategies and how do they maintain capoeira cultural capital and claim for foreign-ness. For now, the founders of these (still few) groups are “dissidents” from Brazilian groups. They have learned capoeira from Brazilian masters. As second path for future research, we suggest investigating capoeira through the point of view of the foreign children, which is the main segment reached by the non-Brazilian instructors for now. A third way to go further in this research is to go back to Brazil to track down the adaptations made in Brazil to adjust capoeira to the different local segments. The very history of capoeira shows how Mestre Bimba and Mestre Pastinha had to adjust it in order to find a way to legalize and spread it throughout Brazil.

Consumer research can benefit a great deal from a better understanding of the mechanisms of the consumption of cultural products. Impregnated by meanings and creativity (Leocadio, 2008), they can be a context to elucidate important consumption subjects, such as collective consumption, cultures of consumption, fandom, and addictiveness. In the international context, we include consumer dispositions, which include the orientations and attitudes towards foreign products and countries. Additionally, the internationalization of cultural products underscores how popular culture helps to polish the image of a nation and strengthens its economic competitiveness in the global market, becoming a key element in nation-branding programs and generating more business due to the halo effect.