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Intracultural and Intercultural Dynamics of Capoeira Training in Brazil
Paul H. Mason
Journal ǁ Global Ethnographic
Publication Date ǁ 1.2013 ǁ No.1 ǁ
Publisher ǁ Emic Press
Global Ethnographic and Emic Press are initiatives of the Organization for Intra-Cultural Development (OICD).
Global Ethnographic is an open access journal.
Place of Publication ǁ Kyoto, Japan
ISSN 2186-0750
ge
© Copyright Global Ethnographic 2013
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Global Ethnographic 2012
photograph by P S (2009)
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Paul H. Mason ge
Capoeira Angola performance outside the Santo Antônio Além do Carmo, also known as the Forte da Capoeira, in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil.
1
Intracultural and Intercultural Dynamics of
Capoeira Training in Brazil
P H. M
ABSTRACT
In the port-cities of Brazil during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a distinct form of combat-
dancing emerged from the interaction of African, European and indigenous peoples. The acrobatic
movements and characteristic music of this art have come to be called Capoeira. Today, the art of
Capoeira has grown in popularity and groups of practitioners can be found scattered across the
globe. Exploring how Capoeira practitioners invent markers of difference between separate groups,
the rst section of this article discusses musical markers of identity that reinforce in-group and out-
group dynamics. At a separate but interconnected level of analysis, the second section investigates
the global origins of Capoeira movement and disambiguates the commonly recounted origin myths
promoted by teachers and scholars of this art. Practitioners frequently relate stories promoting the
African origins of Capoeira. However, these stories obfuscate the global origins of Capoeira music
and movement and conceal the various contributions to this vibrant and eclectic form of cultural ex-
pression. This article unpacks myth-making at two levels of analysis: (1) invented realities promoted
by teachers in the horizontal transmission of Capoeira, and (2) the constructed teleologies about the
vertical transmission of the art. Unpacking acts of myth-making at two levels of analysis reveals the
interplay of discourse and repertoires of bodily expression..
In a CapoeIra aCademy In Salvador
da BahIa…
Class was in session. I was playing the
atabaque drum—a freestanding upright
leatherhead drum with a wooden body
and a metal stand. To my right was a group of
student musicians who were playing an assort-
ment of percussion instruments. A student on
the far end was playing the agogo cow bells and
another was rhythmically running a stick across
a wooden friction instrument called a reco reco.
Next to them were two students playing samba-
like tambourines called pandeiros. Between the
pandeiro players and me were three students
playing berimbaus, monochord, musical bows
with gourd resonators afxed to one end. All
these students were not participating in a typical
music class. This was a training session of Ca-
poeira, the Afro-Brazilian art of combat-dancing
where music and dance fuse with martial arts.
While some students were busy practicing on the
musical instruments that comprise a Capoeira
orchestra, others were learning the bodily move-
ments of this holistic art.
As I played the atabaque drum, I tried to take
part in the vocal call-and-response songs being
led by one of the berimbau players. We were
singing a song distinct to the style of Capoeira
we were practicing, Capoeira Angola. Other
styles of Capoeira include Capoeira Regional and
Capoeira Contemporânea. Singing and playing
an instrument at the same time can be difcult.
I struggled to maintain a steady rhythm on the
drum. Several times, the teacher came over to
correct my playing. She took over the drum and
demonstrated the correct technique. I then at-
tempted to copy her as best as I could.
Playing only three drumbeats in time with
several other musicians was harder than you
would imagine. Believing I was off the beat, I
stopped singing to focus on maintaining a steady
rhythm on the drum. Despite my best efforts,
the teacher came over again and again to dem-
onstrate the rhythm. Her persistent intervention
Keywords: Capoeira, Brazil, Origin, Diversity, Globalisation
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Paul H. Mason
made me anxious about being off the beat. I
paid close attention to her timing. I adjusted my
playing accordingly. I concentrated on imitating
her accurately. However, even when I imagined
that I had corrected my timing immaculately, she
came over yet again to demonstrate the rhythm.
Her repeated instructions were a blatant indica-
tion that there was a crucial aspect of the musical
aesthetic I was missing.
Eventually, the teacher explained to me,
“You are playing too Regional! In Capoeira Re-
gional they play the drum like that, ‘bom BOM
bom’. But, in Capoeira Angola we play it like
this, ‘BOM bom BOM’.” In both examples, she
struck the rim of the drum’s leather surface on
the rst and third strikes and the middle on the
second strike. In her example of Capoeira Re-
gional, transcribed in gure one, the rst and
third strikes were softer and the second strike
was louder so that the sound went: ‘soft, loud,
soft’. In her example of Capoeira Angola, also
transcribed in gure one, the rst and third notes
were louder than the second strike: ‘loud, soft,
loud’. The emphasis on the middle note in the
Capoeira Regional rhythm created a mountain-
like volumetric contour in the musical phrase.
The volumetric contour of the Angola rhythm,
in comparison, created a more steady pulse with
two loud notes per cycle instead of just one. The
Figure 1: Notation of a Capoeira Angola teacher ‘s rendition of the difference between a rhythm for Capoeira
Angola and a rhythm for Capoeira Regional.
Angola teacher was trying to highlight the steadi-
ness of Angola music in comparison to the rising
and stimulating inections of Regional rhythms.
The most curious part of this instruction was
that Capoeira Regional orchestras do not actually
feature a drum. This Capoeira Angola teacher
had invented a picture of Regional drumming
against which to articulate something about her
own style. The volumetric contour of her Angola
rhythm dipped while the volumetric contour of
her representation of Regional rhythm peaked.
The Angola rhythm was meditative and steady
like a heartbeat while the Regional rhythm was
uplifting and invigorating. Through a musical ex-
ample, this teacher was expressing a stereotype of
Capoeira Regional that I had heard her articulate
in conversation in various ways at other times:
“Capoeira Angola is low, protracted, and theatri-
cal while Capoeira Regional is more upright, fast-
paced, and martial.” This discourse oriented the
horizontal transmission of bodily practices.
By creating an image of Capoeira Regional
music, this teacher was asserting the uniqueness
of her own practice. She articulated this unique-
ness through overt physical gestures during Ca-
poeira play and through singing songs specic
to her school’s identity. For example, she would
regularly lead the orchestra in a song dedicated to
Iemanjá, the Queen of the sea:
verSe
Não deixe meu barco afundar,
Don’t let my boat sink
Não deixe, rainha do mar
Don’t let it happen, Queen of the Sea.
ChoruS
Minha Sereia Rainha do mar,
My mermaid, Queen of the Sea,
Não deixe meu barco virar,
Don’t let my boat capsize.
As a female teacher, she wanted to move away
from chauvinistic songs that often circulate in
other Capoeira groups. Singing orations to the
Queen of the Sea served to honour female role
models while simultaneously proclaiming her
group’s geographical location by the sea. After
training sessions, the group would regularly dis-
cuss and reect upon their practice. The unique-
ness of their school was expressed and reinforced
during discussions led by respected teachers.
Highlighting similarity and difference between
Capoeira groups was a strategic manoeuvre in
the marketing of cultural skills. Teachers who
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Global Ethnographic 2012
wish to maintain and expand their student base
need to market their particular skills and the dis-
tinctiveness of their group. Such discourses are
especially obvious in instances when the image
of the other is fabricated—an act illustrated by
the representation of Capoeira Regional drum-
ming by a Capoeira Angola teacher.
Describing another group predominantly
on the basis of stereotypes creates a perceived
homogenisation of the out-group and catalyses
homogenisation of the in-group. Students are
encouraged to unify their shared practices and
the representation of intra-cultural diversity is re-
duced. In-group favouritism and out-group der-
ogation asserts common values among members,
builds shared realities, and reinforces consensus.
In a discussion of in-group and out-group dy-
namics, Richter and Kruglanski (2004: 104)
have highlighted how the psychological need for
closure is a key factor in the formation of sta-
ble cultural activity. They identify the need for
closure as a motivational impulse that can elicit
unmoving adherence to the most highly visible
constructs centered upon pervasively accessible
cultural norms and ideals. The accentuation of
difference solidies the group consensus and es-
tablishes a homogenising culture that is “secure,
and thus appealing, to the group members who
are high in the need for closure” (Richter and
Kruglanski 2004: 101). The need for closure in
Capoeira comes from a desire to attract paying
students as well as propel the genre in a man-
ageable and marketable direction. When culture
becomes a commodity the marketing of cultural
skills becomes a carefully negotiated affair. At
the horizontal level of transmission, discourses
are created that orient physical articulations of
identity.
Interviews with revered Capoeira teachers
(2009) at the Forte San Antonio in Salvador da
Bahia—one of the biggest epicentres of Ca-
poeira activity in Brazil—revealed wildly diver-
gent views about Capoeira as a eld of practice.
Some Capoeira teachers suggested that there are
as many styles of Capoeira as there are differ-
ent schools, while others said that wherever there
is a berimbau all Capoeira is the same. Capoeira
teachers are driven by desires to promote their
group, increase their class size, and potentially
gain more cultural capital and monetary wealth.
These desires and the competition between
groups drives the psychological need for closure.
In any one particular academy, the style of
Capoeira performed is compelled by both teach-
ers and a mixture of cultural forces to be rec-
ognisable, consistent and marketable. Centering
a repertoire of body movement and musical
aesthetics upon easily identiable markers stra-
tegically catalyses centripetal in-group tenden-
cies. Creating an ‘other’ of conicting aesthetics
fosters centrifugal out-group derogation. By ac-
centuating the differences between groups and
styles, strategically deploying images of the oth-
er, and establishing acceptable and unacceptable
repertoires of music and movement, Capoeira
teachers maximise the centripetal forces that im-
pel their students towards a homogeneous stand-
ardised practice and minimise the centrifugal
forces that may hurtle a group towards incom-
mensurable heteroglossia.
GloBal orIGInS
In Capoeira groups, like many social commu-
nities sustained by a common eld of practice,
esteemed practitioners can horizontally inuence
centripetal cultural forces. Teachers and students
emphasise and sometimes fabricate in-group and
out-group differences. In addition, practition-
ers also vertically promote the distinctiveness of
their art by deploying origin myths and stories of
lineage. These stories are marketing constructs
but also orient students to distinct expressive
corporeal practices. In the rst section, we ex-
plored how music can be used to demarcate the
exceptionality of a group. The next section fo-
cuses on movement and demonstrates that origin
stories are creatively constructed and deliberately
deployed. Nonetheless, these origin myths are
deeply entangled with the physical play and mu-
sical accompaniment of Capoeira games.
“Capoeira originated from African slaves
brought by the Portuguese to Brazil four hun-
dred years ago...” I still remember the story that
one of my rst Capoeira teachers recounted to
many of his new students. He was from Bahia
and he had taught Capoeira in England, France
and Spain.
“In the early days, the African slaves wore
chains around their wrists and ankles. They were
forbidden from training combat skills. Anything
that could potentially jeopardise the power of
the Portuguese elite was banned. So, the slaves
disguised their combat training in music and
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Paul H. Mason
dance. Unable to move freely in the chains, they
learnt to manoeuvre on their hands and deliver
deadly blows with their feet.”
The exact details of the story changed, but
the central theme was always the same: Capoeira
was the outgrowth of slavery and subversion. I
knew the story well. As a young practitioner, I
repeated the story myself many times and heard
countless variations from other practitioners.
The idea of music as concealment was pro-
moted by the two most inuential teachers of
Capoeira, Manuel dos Reis Machado (1899-1974)
who started a Capoeira academy in 1932, and Vi-
cente Ferreira Pastinha (1899-1981) who started
an academy in 1941 (Talmon-Chvaicer 2008:30).
Their position is best summed up by D’Aquino
who wrote:
Because it developed and was practiced under
the watchful eye of white masters and plantation
supervisors, Capoeira was disguised as a diver-
sion, as an innocuous dance performed for their
own as well as their masters’ enjoyment. (1983:
24)
Capoeira practitioners recount many versions
of this story as part of the história da Capoeira
without separating myth from history (D’Aquino
1983: 97).
Origin stories involving slavery and conceal-
ment do not perfectly correlate with existing
historical evidence of the development of Ca-
poeira. The musical and physical aspects of Ca-
poeira have been continually contested among
practitioners. From the few available sources, for
example, the berimbau did not become linked
with capoeira until at least the third quarter of
the nineteenth century (Talmon-Chvaicer 2008:
129). Until at least the mid-nineteenth century,
the drum had been the musical instrument as-
sociated with capoeira (2008: 31). The drum was
pictured in paintings of foot-ghting (e.g. Earle
1822; Rugendas 1824), in the records of capoeira
arrests (Talmon-Chvaicer 2008: 31), and in tourist
writings (Ribeyrolles 1941: 38). As an act of op-
pression against expressions of African culture,
Brazilian authorities put a ban on drumming in
the early and mid-nineteenth century (Talmon-
Chvaicer 2008: 135). At least for a while, musical
accompaniment for Capoeira did not formerly
exist (Rego 1968: 58). Up until the 1980s, the
instrumentation used for Capoeira games was
not xed or consistent. The composition of the
band had no specic arrangement in terms of
their place or order in the circle (Talmon-Chvaic-
er 2008: 132). Only in the twentieth century did
the berimbau become steadfastly connected with
capoeira (Ibid.).
Origin myths subtend a certain kind of physi-
cal disposition in Capoeira games. Led by the
berimbau, games of Capoeira are played by two
practitioners at a time. Within a circular space
called the roda, Capoeira performers search for
spatial freedom while being physically challenged
by an adversary. The story of disguising martial
arts in dance is utilitarian to Capoeira teachers
who wish to attract students, orient them to-
wards the special kind of play found in the roda,
and inspire them to embody a sense of freedom-
searching integral to the movement repertoires
of the art. The roda is a constrained environ-
ment. Searching for freedom in the roda means
continually looking for uninhabited and danger-
free spaces that are recurrently being opened and
invaded. The search for freedom of the African
slaves in the history of Brazil is a potent meta-
phor for Capoeira performers who search for
physical freedom in the conning space of the
roda.
Stories of concealment promote the search
for freedom and also propagate the Afro-Bahian
mentality of subversion believed to have spawned
from the slavery period. Such stories establish
continuity with the past and serve the same ends
as invented traditions which facilitate social cohe-
sion and socialisation, and legitimise institutions,
status, or relations of authority (Hobsbawm
1983: 9). Teachers of martial arts establish the
value and values of their discipline by recount-
ing the virtues of predecessors (Green 2003: 1).
These historical narratives should be viewed “as
consciously organised and utilised rather than in-
vented” (2003: 9). Issues of falsehood and truth
can be reconciled by understanding that myth
promotes a way of being in the world as opposed
to an epistemic way of seeing the world (Daniel
1990: 227-228; Lewis 1992: 19).
In Capoeira, the emphasis on foot techniques
and the lack of hand assaults is often attributed
to African traditions where “…the hands should
be used for good work, i.e. creative activities,
while the feet should be used for bad work, i.e.
punishment and destruction” (Dawson 1993:
13). However, the most iconic bodily movement
of the Capoeira repertoire, an inverted spinning
kick with hands on the ground, is not necessarily
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Global Ethnographic 2012
African in origin. This arcing kick is known as the
rabo de arraia (stingray’s tail kick) or the meia-lua
de compasso (compass half-moon kick) among
other names. The rabo de arraia blends seamless-
ly with the base movement of Capoeira play, the
ginga (see gure 2), and maintains the circular
and owing motion of physical interaction in the
roda. The syncopated sway of the ginga keeps
players in permanent motion, maintains their
relationship with the music, and allows them to
attack or defend at any moment. To perform the
rabo de arraia from the ginga, “the attacker dou-
bles over and places both hands on the ground.
The attacker looks, upside down, between the
legs and, as the body revolves on the pivot foot,
swings the heel of the trailing leg out” (Downey
2005: 235n2). The circular motion, mobile stabil-
ity, and bodily inversion cement the rabo de ar-
raia as a cornerstone of Capoeira technique.
Music and dance rarely leave a historical re-
cord, but an inverted spinning kick with hands
on the ground is described in nineteenth century
accounts of French Boxing (Charlemont 1877;
Charlemont 1899). Nineteenth century descrip-
tions of Capoeira mention foot-ghting and
open-hand ghting (e.g., Wetherell 1856 quoted
Figure 2: Typical foot placement of the Ginga, the basic swaying movement of Capoeira. The weight of the practi-
tioner is maintained on the front foot and the ball of the back foot.
by Assunção 2005: 101), but no description of
anything like the rabo de arraia. Versions of this
inverted kick appeared in French paintings, such
as an 1857 picture of boxing practiced by the
French army on board a ship (gure 3) as well
as in other drawings of the period (Loudcher
2000). Nineteenth century paintings of Afro-
Bahian ghting by Augustus Earle (gure 3) and
Johann Moritz Rugendas (1824), among others,
only depict ghters executing ginga-like move-
ments (Assunção, 2005: 100-101). No paintings
of Afro-Bahian ghting from this period depict
the rabo de arraia. Archaic forms of the rabo de
arraia and meia-lua de compasso are only seen in
later pictures found in Burlamaqui (1928: 24) and
da Costa (1962: 73-74).
The rabo de arraia could very well have trav-
elled from French boxing into Capoeira. Nine-
teenth century French travellers showed inter-
est in the covert and public ghting activities in
Brazil (e.g. Allain 1886: 271-272; Itier 1853: 62;
Ribeyrolles 1941) and French sailors were among
those who were arrested for Capoeira (Holloway
1989: 658; Soares 2001). ‘Capoeira’ in the nine-
teenth century referred to rufans, vagabonds,
and gangsters who frequented wharf areas and
2Descriptions of an inverted spinning kick with hands on the ground appeared in nineteenth century accounts of French Boxing, once a mandatory part of
French military training called Savate (e.g. Charlemont 1877; Charlemont 1899). For those in the navy, the most effective kick was performed with hands on
the ground and a leg extended at an opponent. Entailing a powerful strike with the foot, this kick gave sailors more balance and stability on a rocking ship.
Charlemont (1899), who had been part of French regiments as early as 1856, described the kick to consist of actively carrying oneself forward, placing hands
on the ground, turning the back to the adversary and launching a foot into the stomach.
Manuel dos Reis Machado, an early proponent of Capoeira popularly known as Mestre Bimba, possibly learnt the inverted spinning kick from sailors during
his teenage years while working as a stevedore in the harbour, or from his father who was a famous champion of a form of foot-ghting called Batuque (As-
sunção 2005: 132). In press interviews, Bimba explained that he had incorporated movements from various arts including batuque and French savate (Ibid.).
Bimba’s students, notably Iapoan and Jair Moura who were swept up by the wave of nationalist and Afro-centric discourse of their generation, insisted on the
paramount contribution of Batuque and de-emphasised the input of non-Brazilian movements (Ibid.).
Batuque is the name of a popular nineteenth century Afro-Brazilian kicking game denominated as an ancestor to Capoeira (Carneiro 1965; Leal 2008: 225).
An early proto-form of French boxing was an eighteenth century game called Jeu bas de Batuque and was played by the sailors of Marseilles. Like Capoeira,
Jeu bas de Batuque was reputed for its free-handed high turning kicks, head butting, elbowing and grappling. According to Charlemont (1877), practitioners
attacked with a series of turning kicks that most of the time glided past their target. Charlemont likened this game from Marseille to gymnastics, dancing, and
clownery; he did not recognise it as combat or as defense. Descriptions of capoeira similarly abound with claims that it is dance, gymnastics, and even a form of
vadiação (loitering/vagrancy). As French boxing has evolved into a sport called Savate, the inverted spinning kick has been forgotten in the midst of competition
rules that preclude its usefulness. The inverted spinning kick has, however, maintained its popularity in the art of Capoeira.
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Paul H. Mason
Figure 3: Negroes ghting by Augustus Earle ca. 1822 (Rex Nan Kivell Collection NK12/103. National Li-
brary of Australia. PIC T1411a.pic-an2822650) compared with Boxe Française à L’Armée ca. 1857
had a strong association to the world of sailors
(Dias 2006: 41, 83, 96-97, 195; Downey 2002: 5;
Leal 2008: 63). If an inverted spinning kick was
imported from French boxing into Capoeira,
then it is because the circular motion, stability
and inversion allowed it to be integrated with
other movements of a circular nature. This arc-
ing kick also proved highly compatible with the
musical-movement relationships that developed
within twentieth century Capoeira.
Capoeira is an amalgamation of many, some-
times disparate, elements that were brought to-
gether in Brazil. Yet, stories of origins tend to be
Afrocentric (Thompson, 1988; Thompson 1991;
Dawson 1993; Dossar 1992; Kubik 1979; Kubik
1986; Desch-Obi 2000) with many practitioners
and authors determining Capoeira to be an im-
port from enslaved Africans, usually making spe-
cial note of the Bantu people of Angola (Desch-
Obi 2002: 361; Lewis 1992: 20; McGowan and
Pessanha 1998: 119). Stories of the African ori-
gins of Capoeira have been deployed throughout
the twentieth century to various ends. Brazilian
authorities stimulated the Afrocentric perspec-
tive as a means to empower self-determination
among Afro-Brazilians. Afrocentric essential-
ism also facilitated the economic development
of Brazil with a newly independent black Africa
(dos Santos 1998: 121). African origin stories
have also attracted scholars of African diaspo-
ras who have found Capoeira a rich eld of hu-
man activity in which to invest their theories. In
talking about the African elements of capoeira,
one has to be careful to avoid the metonymic
fallacy where practices from an African village,
town, or region are used to represent African-
ness as a whole (Agawu 1995: 384-385). Further-
more, anyone who understands African-ness as
only being the trace of individual communities
in West Africa misunderstands the Africans’ and
Afro-Brazilians’ aesthetic and the cosmopolitan-
ness of West Africa. The idea that unchanged
elements of Capoeira are the most ‘African’ mis-
represents the innovativeness and vitality of Af-
rican music and dance traditions.
Denitions of ‘Capoeira’ in Brazil have shift-
ed over time. In the nineteenth century, Capoeira
referred to urban thugs and gangsters. The ‘Ca-
poeira’ that newspapers and police reports men-
tioned in the early nineteenth century was not the
Capoeira of today. Capoeira was a much more
diverse practice, including not simply dances and
challenge games, but also stone-throwing, knife-
ghting, skirmishing with police, and a host of
other urban rufan forms of sorting out dis-
putes, resisting authority, and passing time. The
domestication of Capoeira began with repres-
sion by authorities in the nineteenth century. In
the twentieth century, Capoeira became a musi-
cal ght-dance associated with folklore perfor-
mances. As an expression of folklore, Capoeira
pays homage to the history of slavery in Brazil
through the integration of musical and physical
activities that have come to be associated with
Afro-Bahian history and identity. Practically
speaking, the incorporation of music and the de-
velopment of dance within Capoeira would have
sorted out the most violent expressions of Ca-
poeira as the movement and game increasingly
succumbed to the rhythms of the orchestra and
the surveillance of respected teachers. By the end
of the twentieth century, a culturally stable mu-
sical-movement practice eventually emerged that
was so compelling and consistent that, instead
of being persecuted, it became an international
export.
Lewis (1992) and Downey (2005) maintain a
healthy suspicion of narratives that claim slaves
7
Global Ethnographic 2012
brought Capoeira to Brazil from Angola. Indeed,
the argument that music was used to conceal
pugilistic training does not hold up to detailed
analysis. Music would only serve to draw atten-
tion to an art form that contained kicks, sweeps,
and headbutts. The practice of martial arts is bet-
ter hidden by silence and secrecy than by an in-
dexical noise and publicity. The kicks and sweeps
of Capoeira are dance-like, but they are also bla-
tantly combative and no amount of music could
mislead a viewer to believe otherwise. Refuting
the logic that music was used to conceal pugi-
listic training allows us to understand that origin
myths promote the cohesiveness of the art and
act as a counterpart to the physical activity of
Capoeira play. At both the horizontal and vertical
levels of transmission, instructors strategically
organise and deploy articial cultural representa-
tions to promote the cohesion, coherence, and
consistency of their embodied eld of practice.
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