Laughter Out of Place: Race, Class, Violence, and Sexuality in a Rio Shantytown

Laughter Out of Place is a wonderful ethnography in a number of ways. It captures an incredible depth of understanding of lives of the urban poor women and their families in a favela. It reveals the complexity of their predicaments, and their predicaments are many: How can one try to move up in the society without reproducing the beliefs about black female sexual allure? How can Gloria keep her children in line, out of prison and alive but also how can she prevent them from joining a gang? How can she inflict harsh punishments on her children and at the same time witness the perpetual pampering of the middle and upper class children? How can young men in the favela stay out of gangs in a situation where there are virtually no economic opportunities for them and they are constantly criminalized by the elite? How can middle and upper classes stop their dependence on domestic workers without lowering their own class standing? How can the women in the favela break the cycle of domination and refuse domestic work when sex work is one of the only other viable alternatives for them? How can a black consciousness movement develop among people who believe that calling someone 'black' is an insult? These are just a few of very complex predicaments that Laughter Out of Place reveals to the reader through a great depth of analysis and wonderful story-telling. What might be most interesting, however, is that even though so much of the book is about violence -- either actual or symbolic -- Goldstein chose the lens of humor through which to cast the story. This choice might seem odd at the first glance but at the end of the book it is clear that the framework of humor as a survivalist strategy and also as a place of disjunction between aesthetics of the poor and aesthetics of the middle and upper classes brings all aspects of Goldstein?s work together. This book is also written with a clarity of thought that I believe will draw both academic and non-academic audiences.

Within the first few pages of Laughter Out of Place, I realized that Dr. Goldstein was going to embark on ethnographic analysis in a more personal vein. The introduction reads like a personal reflection of her time spent in "Felicidade Eterna," folding in memories of the people she met into a journal-styled ethnography, of the kind introduced to us by Ruth Behar. I found Donna's approach refreshing: a reader knew where she stood on issues, and there were no concealed objectivities in her observations. Donna's personality comes through in her writing in her style -which does not back away from harsh realities, nor delve into idealized or romanticized metaphors for Brazilian music, sex, or style. I found large scale conclusions were lacking, but her small conclusions peppered within her dialogue were cogent: clearly understood and explained by her observations. Looking at the book's format in an overall construction, I thought she made an interesting and deliberate choice in segmenting the book around particular phenomena of favela culture. The overarching concept - of laughter in the favelas that seemed to be out of place - ran through the book, but other subjects like the aesthetics of domination, black cinderelllas, short-term childhoods, gangs and violence, and the carnivalization of desire focused the book into themes particularized to the society of the favela. The choice of these themes and I can guess were synthesized from coded observations. The phenomena addressed were concrete and drew Donna's discursive writing style along into interesting, relevant, and "involving" territory. She used theory to bolster her arguments, but didn't saddle the story with overwhelming treatises. The choice of ethnographic writing - employing themes - makes me curious though. Does the use of themes artificially differentiate the life in the favela from our own, or other social conditions where poverty subjugates its population? Are we getting a picture of what life is like there, or rather of what particularizes life in the favela from our existences? Admittedly though the book is seductive in drawing the reader into the discussion. And issues touched upon in the book can be applied to many other geographies. Donna does not try to ingratiate herself in pure relativism, as she says, she is often shocked by the ironic attitudes of the people who seem to accept their fate much more humorously than Donna imagined prior to her experience in Felicidade. She takes issue with some theortists, including Foucault, presenting and then unraveling their theoretical positioning. She also disparages the study of elites, or "cosmopolitan intellectuals, or transnational social movements" as a form of "ethnographic refusal," and a condition "that would fail to provide density to our representations, sanitize politics," or produce "thin version of culture with a set of dissolving actors" (43). Donna does not hold back. In her review of Donna Goldstein's book, Nancy Shepar-Hugh

As a graduate student in cultural anthropology, I find Goldstein's book to be an important contribution to modern-day anthropology. As a good example of "on the ground" anthropology, this ethnography's greatest strength lies in the material itself, specifically those social issues that CANNOT and MUST NOT be classified as social phenomena (i.e. racism, class conflict, and structural and everyday forms of violence) attributable of a bygone era. By focusing specifically on the social, familial, and economic relationships of her main informant (Glória), Goldstein illustrates how Glória's experiences-as well as her friends' and family members'-are microcosmic examples of how the lives of Rio's urban poor continue to be characterized by these very real and contemporary issues. Often relegated to favelas in the Rio's Zona Norte, members of Brazil's enormous lower class encounter social and economic hardships that most-if not all-of us will only experience through ethnographic description. In my opinion, "Laughter Out of Place" is one ethnography that successfully and sensitively sheds some light-however depressing-on these realities.I believe that "Laughter Out of Place" successfully interweaves both theory and ethnographic data in what is a cohesive and coherent final product. In reference to theory, Goldstein's explicit theoretical discussions are not only interesting, but also helpful in trying to wrap your brain around such difficult subjects as rape, police violence, and extreme poverty. For example, she utilizes theories of political economy, cultural capital, and Freyre's "myth of racial democracy" to better understand-and best convey-the complexity of the situations she witnessed in the early 1990s. Additionally, the ethnographic content is well proportioned to the amount of theoretical material included in the book. At times, the `thickness' of the ethnographic material is overwhelming, but this is necessary when writing of extremely depressing scenarios like those so prevalent in the culture of Rio's favelas. One of the most endearing and unique aspects of "Laughter Out of Place" is at the heart of the ethnography: the examination of how a particular cultural group comes to use a specific coping mechanism (`black humor') to confront their lived realities and hardships. Goldstein skillfully shows that this adaptation is undoubtedly culturally constructed and culturally specific to life in Rio's favelas, particularly Felicidade Eterna. For as Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Philippe Bourgois suggest in the Forward, Goldstein clearly reveals "the layers of bravado, anger, defiance, and deep sadness that are built into each complex joke."Lastly, I should mention that I reflected on my own coping mechanisms while contemplating Goldstein's detailed discussion of laughter `out of place.' As a result, I ask myself: How do I deal with pain, stress, and death in my own life? How do we in our own subcultures choose to cope collectively with our own

Donna Goldstein, a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has written a true anthropological/ethnographic masterpiece. After many years of field work and manuscript writing, Goldstein's book should be added to nationwide anthro department reading lists. Each chapter deals with the core issues that any cultural anthropologist must come to terms with: gender, race, class, and violence. Black humor is also an underlying theme. As a student of anthropology, this book changed my perspective regarding my area of study. After reading many of the required ethnographies and anthropological works for my major, Laughter out of Place was like a breath of fresh air. Goldstein's style is truly beautiful and poignant. Her storytelling style and descriptions of poverty, racism, rape, and violence cut to the core. Furthermore, the explanations of various cultural and social theories are not dry-- they flow with the rest of the book (thus making it accessible to those who are not students of anthropology).Goldstein also does a fine job of demonstrating to the reader that although her book reflects upon her experiences in Brazil, it also stands as a symbol for any people in any country who suffer from having been "colonized".I highly recommend this book to anyone. However, I would especially emphasize its importance for students of anthropology. This is definitely the book that will remind you of why we study anthropology: to come to an understanding of other cultures and why injustices exist in this world.

Laughter out of Place is crucial reading for those interested in exploring the hardships of Brazil and the spunk that keeps a population of oppressed and impoverished people dancing, singing, and always eager to laugh. Goldstein takes the reader through the gutters and alleys of a Rio shantytown, sharing years of experience as both a fieldworker, and a personal friend to many of the book's feisty characters. Laughter portrays the unbearableness of shantytown life and how it is expressed through laughter, ridicule, and trickery that seem inappropriate to outsiders. From my own experience of living and working in a Brazilian shantytown, I can with say confidence that Laughter out of Place is an authentic and well-researched exploration of shantytown survival tactics in Brazil. For any person interested in learning about the Brazil that lies outside of Carnival and beautiful beaches, this book is your transport. Annie Eastmandirector of (a room of an hour) an excerpt of Brazilfloorsleepers'[email protected]