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This study investigates the relationships between ethnographic study and animation practice, focusing on the Brazilian martial art, capoeira, often referred to as a dance, fight and game. This approach was adopted to explore the ways animation can be placed in relation to both historical and more recent critical theory. A local capoeira community group based in South East London participated in the study for a period of twelve months. The respondents were a combination of teachers and learners, and semi-structured interviews in the form of a conversational style were conducted with several participants. The Capoeira music was composed remotely in collaboration with a capoeira practitioner and a professional berimbau instrumentalist, based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Additional music was recorded in a studio in London by main subject of this study, Professor Saruê. Practice-based investigations are currently in development, consisting of footage recorded on 16 mm black-and-white negative film. Direct animation and scratch film were created using 16 mm black leader and 35 mm film, forming a series of animated experiments. The ethnographic methods later revealed a strong connection between capoeira and the Brazilian religion of Candomblé, and attempts to determine how animation can be used to represent the phenomenon of the spirit. Evaluation and reflection of animation practice revealed a strong relationship between ethnography and animation, a relatively new area with promising developments and scope for further research within visual anthropology. Further research is needed to identify other factors that could strengthen the effectiveness of this methodology. The practice-based components of the overall study revealed the potential for in depth fieldwork, overseas travel and longitudinal study spanning the space of one to two years. This would expand a relatively small yet emerging area of academic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since at least 2005, drug traffickers in the cities and favelas of the state of Rio de Janeiro have been carrying out systematic and violent assaults on Afro-Brazilian religious communities. Motivated by their conversion to sects of Evangelical Christianity that regard Afro-Brazilian religions as devil worship, the traffickers have forcibly expelled devotees of these faiths from their homes and temples, destroyed shrines and places of worship, and threatened to kill priests if they continue to practice their religion. Scholars have often described this religious landscape as a "conflict" and a "spiritual war." However, I argue that Evangelized drug traffickers and Afro-Brazilian religions are not engaged in a two-sided struggle; rather, the former is unilaterally committing gross violations of the latter's human rights, which contravene international norms prohibiting crimes against humanity and genocide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]