Mulatice: Fetish or Feminine Power?

Mulatice: FETISH OR FEMININE POWER? Corey Souza University of Florida [C]ultural performances are not simple reflectors or expressions of culture or even of changing culture but may themselves be active agencies of change, representing the eye by which culture sees itself and the drawing board on which creative actors sketch out what they believe to be more apt or interesting ‘designs for living’ (Turner 1987: 24). This paper engages critical race and gender studies in Brazil with particular interest in the mulata’s1 role in nationalist performance. Brazilian nationalism based on mixed race ideology or “racial democracy” parallels that of mestizo ideology of other Latin American nations (Wade 2010). The professional mulata or passista2 performs the ideology of racial democracy through the medium of samba (Parker 1991; Gilliam 1999). Although the term mulata indicates a woman of mixed African and European descent, Brazil’s ambiguous racial terminology and social categorizations allow for performances of mulatice3 to be experienced through the bodies of women ranging from very dark (black) to light skinned (white). Regardless of the dancer’s skin color, her performance draws on a distinctly Afro-Brazilian aesthetic: thus, this paper considers her performance to be non-white in essence. Obtaining professional mulata and passista status is not based on the color of a woman’s skin, but instead is based on her proficiency in performing samba, the national dance and rhythm of Brazil. Academic analyses of samba and carnival vary from pessimistic views of these phenomena as reifying racial and gender hierarchies to interpretations of carnival as a counter-hegemonic performance (Chasteen 1996; Sherriff 1999; Perry 2010). Critics of the sexist and racist overtones of performing mulatice only take into consideration the social and political body, while excluding the phenomenological body, that is, the lived experience of the performer (Pravaz 2003: 119). The performance of mulatice is a vehicle for socio-economic mobility and pleasure for the individual performer. Furthermore, passistas and professional mulatas bear the responsibility of maintaining and displaying the art of samba no pé4 (in the feet). Grounded in the anthropology of embodiment and performance, this paper combines historical evidence and recent ethnographic data5 to show that performances of mulatice bridge a fetishized image of non-white female sexuality to one of power and independence when one considers Special thanks to Dr. Faye Venetia Harrison of the University of Florida whose course in Race & Racism was the original inspiration for this paper. Also, thanks to Dr. Catherine Puckett for reviews and edits on multiple versions of this paper. C  2013 Southeastern Council on Latin American Studies and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 91 The Latin Americanist, March 2013 the phenomenological body. The unstable nature of the passista’s or professional mulata’s prestige sparks questions as to the manner in which much contemporary scholarship has attributed social status to marginalized individuals. Embodying Brazilian Nationalism Precursors of contemporary Brazilian nationalism are seen in the works of nineteenth-century romantic poets and composers. Brazilian novelist José de Alencar’s O Guarany (1857), followed by Antonio Carlos Gomes’s opera Il Guarany (1870), promoted indianismo to describe Brazil’s national origins (Volpe 2002: 179). The indianismo myth constructs the ‘primordial couple’ as that of a Portuguese woman and a male Amerindian. However , in fact, this couple portrays the inverse of actual sexual relationships between colonizers and the colonized in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The original Portuguese colonizers were male and the rape of indigenous women was common. Viewed simultaneously, as archetypal figures of primitive savagery as well as inherent innocence, the disappearing Amerindians could be more easily romanticized in the imagination of elite Portuguese colonists, in contrast to the threatening presence of Africans and Afro-Brazilians (Alberto 2011: 8). After Brazilian independence in 1822, Amerindian names were adopted and the Tupı́6 language was seriously considered to be the official language of Brazil. Elite Brazilians would often claim Amerindian heritage as proof of their authentic Brazilianness (Skidmore 1974: 7). By the turn of the twentieth century, however, anthropologists and ethnomusicologists started describing African and Afro-descendent culture in Brazil as superior to that of Amerindian cultures (Reily 2000). This transition coincided with the negróphilia sweeping the modern...