This article analyses the concept of ‘enclosed body’ in the ritual of the Angolan kapoeira in Brazil. The capoeira is a practice of Afrobrasilese origin, combining aspects of gambling, fighting, ritual and martial art. The aim of the text is to show the link between practice, symbolism and cosmology as integral parts of the native conceptions of ‘enclosed body’. A description that includes both aspects of the participants’ experience, such as the religious and spiritual background of the capoeira and its membership of a pluralistic cosmology, argues in favour of a holistic view of this Afrobrasilese ritual; such a vision can help to understand different relational levels of culture.