Laughter Out of Place: Race, Class, Violence, and Sexuality in a Rio Shantytown (Public Anthropology, 9)

381 Pages·2003·2.78 MB·English

by  Donna M. Goldstein

Laughter Out of Place
CALIFORNIA SERIES IN PUBLIC ANTHROPOLOGY
The California Series in Public Anthropology emphasizes the
anthropologist’s role as an engaged intellectual. It continues
anthropology’s commitment to being an ethnographic witness, to
describing, in human terms, how life is lived beyond the borders of
many readers’ experiences. But it also adds a commitment, through
ethnography, to reframing the terms of public debate—transforming
received, accepted understandings of social issues with new insights,
new framings.
series editor: Robert Borofsky (Hawaii Pacific University)
contributing editors: Philippe Bourgois (UC San Francisco),
Paul Farmer (Partners in Health), Rayna Rapp (New York University), and
Nancy Scheper-Hughes (UC Berkeley)
university of california press editor: Naomi Schneider
1. Twice Dead: Organ Transplants and the Reinvention of Death,
by Margaret Lock
2. Birthing the Nation: Strategies of Palestinian Women in Israel,
by Rhoda Ann Kanaaneh (with a Foreword by Hannan Ashrawi)
3. Annihilating Difference: The Anthropology of Genocide,edited by
Alexander Laban Hinton (with a Foreword by Kenneth Roth)
4. Pathologies of Power: Structural Violence and the Assault on Health
and Human Rights,by Paul Farmer (with a Foreword by Amartya Sen)
5. Buddha Is Hiding: Refugees, Citizenship, and the New America,
by Aihwa Ong
6. Chechnya: The Making of a War-Torn Society,by Valery Tishkov (with a
Foreword by Mikhail Gorbachev)
7. Total Confinement: Madness and Reason in the Maximum Security
Prison,by Lorna A. Rhodes
8. Paradise in Ashes: A Guatemalan Journey of Courage, Terror,
and Hope, by Beatriz Manz (with a Foreword by Aryeh Neier)
9. Laughter Out of Place: Race, Class, Violence, and Sexuality in a
Rio Shantytown,by Donna M. Goldstein
10. War and Its shadows: The Legal, the Illicit, and the Invisible, by
Carolyn Nordstrom
Laughter Out of Place
Race, Class, Violence, and Sexuality
in a Rio Shantytown
Donna M. Goldstein
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley · Los Angeles · London
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2003 by
The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Goldstein, Donna M.
Laughter out of place : race, class, violence, and sex-
uality in a Rio shantytown / Donna M. Goldstein.
p. cm.—(California Series in Public Anthro-
pology; 9)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-520-23596-7 (alk. paper)—
ISBN 0-520-23597-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Marginality, Social—Brazil—Rio de Janeiro.
2. Poor—Brazil—Rio de Janeiro. 3. Poor—Brazil—
Rio de Janeiro—Humor. 4. Slums—Brazil—Rio de
Janeiro. 5. Violence—Brazil—Rio de Janeiro.
6. Sex—Brazil—Rio de Janeiro. 7. Rio de Janeiro
(Brazil)—Race relations. I. Title.
HN290.R5 G58 2003
305.5’68’098153—dc21 2003001852
Manufactured in the United States of America
12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992 (R 1997)
(Permanence of Paper).1
To my grandparents and my parents,
who all understood the importance
of laughter

I just want to be happy
Walk with tranquillity
In the favela where I was born
Yeah. . . .
And to be able to take pride
And being aware
That the poor have their place
Faith in God DJ
Dear authorities I just don’t know what to do
With so much violence I fear living
Because I live in a favela I get no respect
There, sadness and happiness walk side by side. . . .
I can’t take any more of this wave of violence
All I’m asking from the authorities is a little more competence
I have never seen a postcard picturing a favela
I only see those with pretty scenes
Those who leave the favela feel nostalgia for it
The gringo who comes here and doesn’t know the reality
He goes to the Zona Sul to have coconut milk
While the poor in the favela are suffocating. . . .
Eu só quero é ser feliz
Andar tranqüilamente
Na favela onde eu nasci
É. . . .
E poder me orgulhar
E ter a consciência
Que o pobre tem o seu lugar
Fé em Deus DJ
Minha cara autoridade já não sei o que fazer
Com tanta violência eu fico medo de viver
Pois moro na favela eu sou muito desrespeitado
A tristeza e a alegria que caminha lado a lado. . . .
Já não aguento mais essa onda de violência
Só peço autoridades sum pouco mais de competência
Nunca vi cartão postal que se destaca uma favela
Só vejo paisagem muito linda e muito bela
Quem vai pro exterior da favela senti saudade
O gringo vem aqui e não conhece a realidade
Vai pra zona sul pra conhecer água de cocô
E pobre na favela vive passando sufoco. . . .
Excerpted from “Rap da Felicidade”
(“Rap of Happiness”) by
Julio Rasta/Kátia
Contents
List of Illustrations xi
Foreword xiii
Acknowledgments xix
Introduction: Hard Laughter 1
1. Laughter “Out of Place” 18
2. The Aesthetics of Domination:
Class, Culture, and the Lives of Domestic Workers 58
3. Color-Blind Erotic Democracies, Black Consciousness
Politics, and the Black Cinderellas of Felicidade Eterna 102
4. No Time for Childhood 136
5. State Terror, Gangs, and Everyday Violence in
Rio de Janeiro 174
6. Partial Truths, or the Carnivalization of Desire 226
7. What’s So Funny about Rape? 259
Notes 275
Glossary 313
References 321
Index 341