Q 01/05

Capoeira is best described as what?

A) A Portuguese folk dance performed at harvest festivals in the Algarve

B) A Brazilian wrestling style developed by gauchos in the south

C) An Afro-Brazilian martial art and game with dance, acrobatics and music

D) An Angolan drumming tradition brought to Brazil by missionaries

Answer · why

C) An Afro-Brazilian martial art and game with dance, acrobatics and music

Practitioners speak of 'playing' rather than fighting or dancing.

Q 02/05

Scholars have identified capoeira's roots in which traditional Bantu martial art from Angola?

A) Moraingy

B) Batuque

C) Engolo

D) Maculelê

Answer · why

C) Engolo

Engolo movements imitate nature, such as a zebra's kick; the Cunene region is associated with the practice.

Q 03/05

Capoeira is first mentioned in an official document in what year, as a criminal activity?

A) 1500

B) 1600

C) 1789

D) 1700

Answer · why

C) 1789

The judicial document called capoeiragem 'the gravest of crimes'.

Q 04/05

The most accepted origin of the word 'capoeira' comes from Tupi words meaning what?

A) Slave dance

B) Foot fight

C) Chicken coop

D) Round forest

Answer · why

D) Round forest

Ka'a paũ referred to small forested areas where fugitive slaves hid.

Q 05/05

What was the violent 19th-century street-fighting style of Rio de Janeiro called?

A) Capoeira Angola

B) Capoeira regional

C) Capoeira carioca

D) Capoeira dura

Answer · why

C) Capoeira carioca

It mixed kicks, headbutts, knife and stick fighting and is no longer practiced as an organized style.