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Favela Utopias: The Bailes Funk in Rio's Crisis of Social Exclusion and Violence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Paul Sneed
Paul Sneed*
Affiliation:
University of Kansas
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Abstract

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Rio de Janeiro's bailes funk, or funk dance parties, with their often intensely violent and aggressively sexualized nature, are fundamental expressions of the culture of the city's favelas, or squatter towns, with tremendous significance for enormous crowds of poor, young people who attend them. This article draws on ethnographic research and participant observation, conducted by the author throughout years of living in the favela of Rocinha, and close readings of funk lyrics to explore the utopian impulse at the core of the baile funk experience, especially in community dances sponsored by gangsters held in the streets of favelas. Like some other cultural expressions of African diaspora communities, these bailes conjure up and sustain a morally and politically charged musical space that joins the young people together, emotionally elevating them above the harsh conditions of their lives into a spiritual state that makes available to them the feeling of living in a better world.

Resumo

Resumo

Os bailes funk do Rio de Janeiro, muitas vezes caracterizados por intensa violência e sexualidade agressiva, são expressões fundamentais da cultura das favelas com um significado especial para o grande número de jovens pobres que os freqüenta. Este artigo está baseado em teoria cultural, pesquisa etnográfica (conduzida pelo autor ao longo de vários anos na favela da Rocinha), leitura minuciosa de letras de músicas e observação participante para explorar o impulso utópico subjacente à experiência do baile funk, sobretudo nos bailes de comunidade patrocinados nas favelas por traficantes de drogas. Como é o caso de muitas outras expressões de práticas culturais da Diáspora Africana, a experiência do baile cria um espaço musical que une e eleva os participantes emocionalmente para além da escassez da pobreza para um estado de espírito em que possam sentir a sensação de como seria viver num mundo melhor.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 43 , Issue 2 , 2008 , pp. 57 - 79
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

*

This article is part of a larger study on the culture and practice of funk music in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Research has been supported by the Tinker Foundation in an institutional grant to the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese of San Diego State University in a faculty research grant, and the U.S. Department of Education in an institutional grant to the Center for Latin American Studies at San Diego State University. A shorter version of this article was presented at the International Conference of the Latin American Studies Association, San Juan, Puerto Rico, March 15–18, 2006. I thank the commentator of that panel; Dário Borim, Robert Neuwirth, and Juan Carlos Ramirez-Pimienta; and the editors and three anonymous reviewers from LAR for their insightful comments and suggestions. I also thank Severino Albuquerque and Florencia Mallon for their support and advice during the earliest stages of research for this article. I remain responsible for the errors and omissions in this work. Finally, I owe an enormous debt to my loving wife, Jeyla dos Reis Sneed, and to the people of the community of Rocinha.

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