1. Seek to chart complex intersections in poor communities of Rio de Janeiro
1.1. Race/class/gender/sexuality at work
1.2. Local life of Rio's favelas (shantytowns)
1.2.1. Residence feel "divorced from outside forces"
1.2.2. Because of power battles identities of both people and places are renamed to ensure security
1.2.3. Humor is in the town : about contradiction of poverty in a place of capitalism
1.2.3.1. Meanings behind humor are elusive,hard to grasp, and fugitive
1.2.3.2. Humor opened views into complicated consciousness of burdened lives
1.2.3.3. Reveals realities of social world more accurately than serious modes
1.2.4. Almost 1mill out of 10 mill residence of Rio still live in favelas
1.2.4.1. Few attempts to ethnographically document daily life and struggles of women
1.2.4.1.1. Carolina Maria de Jesus : poor black woman who kept diary of everyday life/struggle in 1960
2. Draws similarities to her own childhood
2.1. Parents immigrated from Russia to projects in Brooklyn
2.2. Had friends from eatern Europe that survived holocaust
2.3. Even in a hard,poor childhood their was always laughter and jokes in her house
3. What is this book about?
3.1. Power relations and how they are experienced by the poor
3.2. Humors help organise this book with laughter and their underlying meanings
3.2.1. Humor is inspired by the unusual cruel political/economic circumstances that allow the absurdity of their situation to be laughter at
3.2.2. Freud : idea behind various subtle guises of humour lies an aggressiveness that is now common
3.2.3. Social science literature characterises hum or as either radical or conservative social force
3.2.4. James Scott 1985 "hum or might be one of the weapons of the weak"
3.2.4.1. Poor are forced to express dislikes behind closed door so humour helps to release protests
4. Marshall Sahlins :social anthropologist : "power, power everywhere, and how the signs do shrink. Power,power everywhere, and nothing else to think."
4.1. Everything can be explains in terms of domination and resistance
5. BLACK HUMOR, CLASS, AND CARNIVALESQUE LAUGHTER
5.1. Humour of the poor can allow for people to speak about things otherwise silenced or banned
5.2. Using laughter one can find their place in social structures classifying cultural styles
5.2.1. Laughter was used in the black community of Brazil to use against the wealthier class
5.3. Carnival is a time to allow commentary and voice the bad emotions and thoughts towards power
5.4. Black humour is comprehended through a large range of classes but born out of poverty
5.4.1. In upper black classes of society laughter comes from misery but it is a distant misery :a second-order aesthetic
5.4.2. For the poorer black communities humour is a window into their private lives and opinions