Abstract
The Baile da Chatuba (Chatuba dance) has taken place since the mid 1990s at the Quadra da Chatuba (Chatuba sports facility), on the Morro da Chatuba (Chatuba hill), which forms part of the Complexo da Penha (Penha complex of favelas), in the Zona Norte (northern region) of Rio de Janeiro city. Military occupation of the Complexo in 2010 and the installation of an Unidade de Polícia Pacificadora (pacifying police unit) on the hill in 2012 entailed restricted access to that facility, and the dances were forbidden. In 2014 the Secretaria de Cultura do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Culture Bureau of the Rio de Janeiro State) sponsored their revival. There followed negotiations between the organizers, UPP officers, the Secretaria de Cultura, illicit-substance retailers, and the community. The subgenre of música funk (baile-funk music) that deals with life in crime, proibidão, for which Chatuba was renowned, ought to be excluded. Historical research, analyses of recordings, and fieldwork conducted from 2005 to 2015 come together within the frameworks of an urban anthropology and of a relational musicology (Born 2010) to inscribe such process in the history of the criminalization of popular partying in the Penha neighbourhood. Exempt from a linear and evolutionary view of history (Benjamin 1985), Festa da Penha (Penha Feast) and Baile da Chatuba appear as allegories of a long-haul history of the African-diaspora cultures. This history articulates criminalization and survival, and suggests that proibidão participates in the construction of identities whose references lie in shared experiences of armed violence and violation of rights.
Key words:
Baile funk; Pacification; Proibidão; Penha; Survival culture
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