O casamento como manifestação de uma cultura: o caso de Nova Palmira

Abstract

This study has as objective to analyze through a rite of passage the cultural values present in a rural community. When narrating their memories, the inhabitants of this community bring to discussion the experiences lived in the wedding rite and the meanings that they represented in their lives. The richness of this qualitative study sustains itself in the possibility of deeply knowing these experiences, analyzing the cultural aspects which they organize themselves in and what they represent for their maintenance. The research uses ethnography as methodological basis and the semi-structured narrative interview as the data gathering technique. The sample is intentional consisting of thirty interviewees from three distinct generations. The subject selection criteria to take part in the research were: marital status, residence at the place of research, age and gender. Based on these variables, three interviewee groups were created divided by distinct ages in order to distinguish the generations. The theoretical referential used enabled the analysis of this community`s culture through Van Gennep, Turner, Segalen and DaMatta works, and to identify the rite of passage stages and the values inserted in this rite at the community. This way the study around these narratives contributed to show that this rite maintains itself in the community as part of the culture and social values that constitute its culutural identity. The study even demonstrates that the rites are products of social forces and that they maintain themselves alive despite the speed at which the society develops.