Brasyl

GLOSSARY

Abia: Uninitiated novice.

Agogo: Twin-horned metal percussion instrument used in candomble and capoeira.

Aîuri: Tribal council.

Alabe: First drummer and song leader; male office in candomblé.

Aldeia: Missionary Indian village, usually Jesuit.

Alva: Skin-color descriptor: pure white, considered rare in Brazil.

Amaci: Herbal infusion used for purification.

Assentamento: Assemblage of objects, herbs, and water fed and venerated as the conjunction of a person and orixá.

Axé: Transformative power: magic, the force that makes things happen.

Baiana: From the state of Bahia, latterly come to mean the quasi-traditional costume of women from Salvador.

Baile: “Dance,” used in Rio in the sense of an impromptu street sounddsystem party, giving rise to the popular carioca genre of “baile-funk.” Constantly evolving.

Bairro: Official city district.

Barracão: Main ceremonial room of the terreiro. Bateria: The percussion section of a samba school.

Bauru: Paulistano hot ham-and-cheese sandwich, often in sweet bread.

Berimbau: Stringed instrument of African origins, a bow attacked to a resonator gourd, used in capoeira.

Bicha: Literally “bitch,” but used as “queen.”

Bolar: To “roll” in the saint-a spontaneous possession trance and common precursor to initiation as an iao.

Branca-melada: Skin-color subtype. Honey-colored.

Caboclo: Mixed Indian/white, very much an Amazonian underclass. The term is mildly derogatory in contemporary Brazil. See also manzeluco.

Cafezinho: “Small coffee,” served strong, small, sweet, and on the go.

Caiçara: Riverside slave stockade.

Camarinha: Inmost, holiest chamber in a terreiro, reserved for the mae do santo and her consort. Also, in colonial Brazil, a town council.

Candomblé: Afro-Brazilian religion based around the veneration of orixás.

Captaincy: Division of Colonial Brazil; a segment of land bordered by two lines that ran parallel to the equator inland until they struck the Line ofTordesilhas, the demarcation between Portuguese and Spanish terrritories. Ruled by a donatory.

Catadores: Informal garbage collectors.

CBF: The Brazilian Soccer Confederation, the sport’s governing body. Chopperia: Bar selling draft beer.

Cidade Maravilhosa: “Marvelous City”; also, Rio’s city “anthem.”

Conselho Ultramarino: The crown council that ran colonial Brazil.

Corda vermelha: “Red cord”; the highest level of capoeira, analogous to a black belt in other martial arts disciplines.

Cor-de-canela: Cinnamon-colored: one of 134 skin types recognized and delineated in Brazil.

Crente: “Believer” — member of anyone of Brazil’s many evangelical Chrisstian sects.

Dende: Palm tree whose fruit and oil are important in food offering to the orixás.

Descanso: “Chilling” on arrival at the terreiro — cooling the head.

Doces: Cakes, sweets. Cake is commonly served for breakfast in Brazil.

Donatory: Quasi-feudal fief holder of a colonial Brazilian captaincy.

Ebó: Offering of sacrifices to orixás.

Ebomi: Terreiro elder, initiated for more than seven years.

Egbé: Community based in a terreiro.

Ekedi: A usually female terreiro officer who does not trance but aids those ridden by the orixás.

Engenho: A sugar mill, including the land, buildings, slaves, and animals that worked it.

Entrada: Slave-taking expedition.

Enxofrada: Skin-color subtype of pallid yellow, jaundiced.

Escaupil: Kapok-padded leather or cloth armor worn by bandeirantes, considered impervious to shot.

Exu: Lord of the crossroads and entrances, messenger between gods and humans, dynamic principle. Often found at the entrance to the terreiro, and characterized as a typical Rio malandro.

Farofa: Manioc flour, often fried in butter for a nurty flavor.

Favela: Unofficial Brazilian shantytown.

Fazenda: Country estate for coffee or sugar, or a cattle ranch.

Feijoada: Great dish of Rio, a long-simmered cassoulet of pork bits with Brazilian sausage and other thrifty cuts. In Rio, always made with feijaos (black beans), though pinto beans are commonly used in the rest of Brazil.

Feitor: Trader or small industry owner; “factor.”

Fidalgo: Portuguese knightly class.

Furaçao: Hurricane.

Furo: A cross-channel between two main river channels.

Futebol: the beautiful game, real football. Known in United States as soccer.

Futsal: Five-a-side soccer played in a walled arena with a smaller, heavier, ground-hugging ball. Very fast, very popular, very good.

Gafieira: Dance hall/public dance. Paulistano equivalent of a carioca baile.

Gatinha: Young vivacious woman.

Gelosias: Wooden shutters on the upper windows of colonial houses.

Guarana: Native Brazilian berry with high levels of caffeine, made into a series of stimulant products, including very popular, very sweet soft drinks.

Ianques: Literal transliteration of “Yankees.”

Iâo: Initiate of a typical syncretist Afro-Brazilian religion.

Igapó: Terrain occasionally flooded by a river.

Jacaré: The cayman.

Jogo: “Game” or match of capoeira. Unlike other martial arts, one “plays” capoeira, emphasizing its street-smart, malandro aesthetic.

Kibe: Delicious deep-fried meatballs of Lebanese extraction, often found at breakfast.

Ladeira: Steep “ladder” like alley in a favela. Usually traversable only on foot or by moto-taxi.

Lanchonete: Lunch-stand/small cafe.

Lavrador de cana: Small-scale colonial cane-grower, owning at the most half a dozen slaves.

Lingua geral: “General language”; a simplified version of the languages of the Tupi peoples used as a universal tongue. In eighteenth-century Brazil it was more widely spoken than Portuguese.

Loira: White with blond hair.

Maconha: Marijuana.

Mae do santo: Candomble priestess.

Malandragem: The entire capoeira philosophy of malicia and jeito (qv) as a theory of life.

Malicia: Capoeira term meaning “street cunning/warrior smarts” — the abillity to see and rake an unfair advantage if one is presented.

Maloca: Multigeneration Indian house.

Mameluco: Alternative expression for caboclo, usually in military service.

Moqueça: Bahian (usually seafood) dish based around coconut milk and dende.

Morbicha: Headman of a village.

Morena-fechada: Very dark, almost mulatta.

Morro: Steep hill characteristic of Rio.

Mulatinho: Lighter-skinned white-negro.

Orixá: A god, force of nature, divine ancestor, archetype — all of these and subtly much more; the expression of the divine in Bahian candomble.

Pae do santo: Candomble priest.

Pão de queijo: Cheese-bread. A Brazilian obsession.

Paulista: Inhabitant of São Paulo (state).

Paulistano/a: Inhabitant of São Paulo (city).

Patúa: Amulet worn to ward against evil spirits in capoeira.

PCC: Main Paulistano criminal gang. In Rio the favelas are divided between the ADA (Amigos dos Amigos) and the CV-Commando Verrmelho, or Red Command.

Peças: Literally “pieces”; old colonial term for slaves.

Pelourinho: Slave whipping post, also that area of Salvador in which it was set up.

Pernambucano: From the state of Pernambuco in northeastern Brazil.

Pichação: Tag graffiti; in Brazil usually done with a paint roller.

Pistoleiro: Hired gunman.

Preto: Black-as in color or person. Racial terms are used more freely and with less political freight in Brazil than in the north.

Puta: Whore, most commonly used in the popular sense of “bitch.”

Reconçavo: The early-settled area around the Bahia de Todos os Santos, the heart of colonial Brazil.

Reducione/reduction: A group of native villages or aldeias grouped imo a working collective under Jesuit authority.

Reveillon: Mass beach ceremony in Rio at New Year when flowers are offered to Yemanja. Possibly even more popular than carnaval, certanly less commercialized.

Roda: The circle within which capoeira takes place.

Rodovia: Expressway.

Rodoviaria: Bus station.

Sampa: Paulistano name for their city.

Seleção: The Brazil international soccer team.

Serrao: The semiarid region in northeastern Brazil.

Soldado: Soldier — in the gangster sense.

Taipa: Brazilian mud adobe.

Tanga: Originally a triangle of fabric to cover the genitals of either sex, now a bikini style.

Telenovela: Insanely poplar, insanely badly made, and insanely trashy übersoap; the mainstay of Brazilian television.

Terra firme: High forest almost never flooded.

Terreiro: “Church” or temple of candomble and urn banda-usually a converted urban or suburban house within a sacred enclosure.

Travesti: Transvestite.

Uakti: Legendary Amazonian forest monster.

Umbanda: Rio/São Paulo remix of Bahian candomble, usually practiced by whites.

Vaqueiro: Cattle rancher.

Varzea: Flood-plain zone of a river, regularly flooded.

Yemanja: Yoruban deity; “Mother whose children are like fishes,” absorbed into candomble as a sea-goddess, who is venerated in a (recent) Mass celebration on the beaches of Rio at New Year.