Lauren Miller Griffith is an associate professor of anthropology in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology & Social Work at Texas Tech University. She is the author of In Search of Legitimacy: How Outsiders Become Part of the Afro-Brazilian Capoeira Tradition.
“Griffith provides a rich and convincing account of the often surprising connections between the practices, orientations and ‘affective habitus’ of capoeira and social justice struggles. This compelling argument is based on years of ethnographic observant participation and countless hours of interviews with diverse practitioners. The end result is an engaging, highly readable, thoroughly enjoyable, yet always seriously scholarly account of capoeira and its place and work in culture and society--an account that is as surprising, dynamic, and graceful as capoeira itself.”--Paul Bowman, author of The Invention of Martial Arts: Popular Culture between Asia and America