African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
310 p., "The idea baianidade is very much a model, a source of inspiration, the translation of concrete reality. All cultural identities are just that: ideas. ...They unite people, facilitate dialogue, summarize important, beautiful values. As can also serve to alienate us from other people, to justify to ourselves, our faults and mistakes." --The Author, "Agnes Mariano e a "Invenção da Baianidade" (www.passieweb.com).
Examines racial politics in Brazil by analyzing the city of Salvador da Bahia's cultural policies over time and their relationship to national ideology and racial identity in Brazil more generally. It argues that the re-Africanization of Salvador's Carnival and its historical center, the Pelourinho, although initially products of the mobilization of Afro-Bahians themselves, have become institutionalized and ironically serve today as testaments to Brazil's diversity, tolerance, and integration.