Edison de Souza Carneiro (12 August 1912 – 2 December 1972) was a Brazilian writer, historian and ethnologist who specialized in
Afro-Brazilian culture
Afro-Brazilian culture is the combination of cultural manifestations in Brazil that have suffered some influence from Culture of Africa, African culture since Colonial Brazil, colonial times until the present day. Most of Africa's culture reached B ...
. He was one of the most well-known Brazilian ethnologists during his time with his studies on Afro-Brazilian culture and history, which had largely been ignored by Brazilian academic literature up to that point.
He was also an activist with the
Brazilian Communist Party
The Brazilian Communist Party (), originally the Communist Party of Brazil (), is a communist party in Brazil, founded on 25 March 1922. Arguably the oldest active political party in Brazil, it played an important role in the country's 20th- ...
(PCB), starting in the 1930s.
Biography
Carneiro was born on 12 August 1912 in
Salvador
Salvador, meaning "salvation" (or "saviour") in Catalan, Spanish, and Portuguese may refer to:
* Salvador (name)
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
*Salvador (band), a Christian band that plays both English and Spanish music
** ''Salvador'' ( ...
,
Bahia
Bahia () is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Mina ...
, one of 12 children to Antônio Joaquim de Souza Carneiro, the first to find oil in the Lobato neighborhood of Salvador, and Laura Coelho de Souza Carneiro. His brother was senator and president of the national congress
Nelson Carneiro,
and through him, his niece is federal deputy and
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...
councilwoman
Laura Carneiro
Maria Laura Monteza de Souza Carneiro (born 1 May 1963) is a Brazilian lawyer and politician. She has been a councilwoman in the city of Rio de Janeiro, as well as a federal deputy for the state of Rio de Janeiro (state), Rio de Janeiro, in on an ...
.
He was a part of a wave of historians in the 1930s that gave greater attention academically to
Candomblé
Candomblé () is an African diaspora religions, African diasporic religion that developed in Brazil during the 19th century. It arose through a process of syncretism between several of the traditional religions of West and Central Africa, especi ...
, with this wave mostly focusing on the Nagô tradition. The growing literature, both scholarly and popular, helped document Candomblé while contributing to its greater standardization. He would later be invited by
Dorothy B. Porter, alongside statesmen such as
Kwame Nkrumah
Francis Kwame Nkrumah (, 21 September 1909 – 27 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He served as Prime Minister of the Gold Coast (British colony), Gold Coast from 1952 until 1957, when it gained ...
and
Eric Williams
Eric Eustace Williams (25 September 1911 – 29 March 1981) was a Trinidad and Tobago politician. He has been dubbed as the " Father of the Nation", having led the then-British Colony of Trinidad and Tobago to majority rule on 28 October 1956, ...
, to give lectures at
Howard University
Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...
.
Carneiro, along with
Solano and Margarida Trindade, would co-found the Teatro Popular Brasileiro (TPB), a popular theater group inspired by Brazilian Black and indigenous cultural traditions.
In 1962, the "Carta do samba" ("The samba letter"), a document written by Carneiro, was made public, which expressed the need to preserve traditional features of samba, such as the
syncopa, without, however, "denying or taking away spontaneity and prospects for progress". This letter came to meet a series of circumstances that made traditional urban samba not only revalued in different Brazilian cultural circles, but also started to be considered by them as a kind of "counter-hegemonic" and "resistance music" in the Brazilian music scene. In a decade characterized in the Brazilian music industry by the domination of international rock music and its Brazilian variant,
Jovem Guarda
Jovem GuardaJovem Guarda translates literally as "young guard". It could be interpreted as "vanguard". was primarily a Brazilian musical television show first aired by Rede Record in 1965, although the term soon expanded to designate the entir ...
, the traditional samba would have started to be seen as an expression of the greatest authenticity and purity of the genre, which led to the creation of terms such as "samba autêntico" ("authentic samba"), "samba de morro" ("samba of the hill"), "samba de raiz" ("roots samba"), or "samba de verdade" ("real samba").
Carneiro died on 2 December 1972 in
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...
.
Works
* ''Religiões Negras'', Editora Civilização Brasileira, Rio de Janeiro, 1936, 1963;
* ''Negros Bantos'', Editora Civilização Brasileira, Rio de Janeiro, 1937;
* ''O Quilombo dos Palmares'', Editora Brasiliense, São Paulo, 1947, 1958;
* ''Castro Alves'', 1947, 1958;
* ''Candomblés da Bahia'', Editora do Museu do Estado da Bahia, Salvador, 1948;
* ''Antologia do Negro Brasileiro'', Editora Globo, Porto Alegre, 1950;
* ''A Cidade do Salvador'', 1954;
* ''A Conquista da Amazônia'', 1956;
* ''A Sabedoria Popular'', 1957;
* ''Insurreição Praiana'', 1960;
* ''Samba de Umbigada'', Ministério da Educação e Cultura, Rio de Janeiro, 1961.
See also
*
Afro-Brazilian culture
Afro-Brazilian culture is the combination of cultural manifestations in Brazil that have suffered some influence from Culture of Africa, African culture since Colonial Brazil, colonial times until the present day. Most of Africa's culture reached B ...
*
Arthur Ramos
*
Donald Pierson
Donald Pierson (September 8, 1900 – October 13, 1995) was an American sociologist and professor. A long time faculty member and researcher at the Escola de Sociologia e Política de São Paulo, he is known for his research on race in Brazil, par ...
*
Gilberto Freyre
Gilberto de Mello Freyre (March 15, 1900 – July 18, 1987) was a Brazilian sociologist, anthropologist, historian, writer, painter, journalist and congressman born in Recife. Considered one of the most important sociologists of the 20th cen ...
*
Melville J. Herskovits
*
Ruth Landes
Ruth Landes (October 8, 1908 – February 11, 1991) was an American cultural anthropologist best known for studies on the Brazilian religion of Candomblé and her published study on the topic, ''City of Women'' (1947). Landes is recognized by som ...
References
Bibliography
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External links
Edison Carneiro on the website for the National Center of Folklore and Popular Culture
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carneiro, Edison
1912 births
1972 deaths
Edison Carneiro
Writers from Salvador, Bahia
Politicians from Salvador, Bahia
Afro-Brazilian writers
20th-century Brazilian writers
Brazilian ethnologists
Brazilian folklorists
Brazilian Communist Party politicians
Brazilian communists
Afro-Brazilian people