O que comem os excluídos? Os diferentes sentidos da comida oferecida para a população em situação de rua

Abstract

This research attempts to comprehend, capture, the meanings that involves the food offered to the homeless people. This study is enrolled in the scientific field of Food and Nutrition. As a theoretical-methodological course, a qualitative study was done, based on the bibliographical and documentary nature of the ethnographies, sites, booklets and reports of religious institutions, ONG’s, that distribute food to the homeless people, as well as people who act on the system of rights assurance, on the given subject. For the data analysis, the theoretical and methodological orientation of the Symbolic Interactionism was used. The authors to whom we discuss are: Weber, Bourdieu, Guattari, Rolnik, Foucault and Agamben. It is assumed that food, beyond nourishment, carries with it the senses and symbolic codes of the agents involved in a given action. When the subject eats, he incorporates the cultural aspects of what he ingests. The senses that food assumes are produced from the organizational models of a given society and from the relations of power-knowledge established therein. The homeless is a populational group that, having no residence and generally no formal employment, uses the streets, and shelters as a permanent or temporary housing space. Throughout the research process one realizes that food assumes different meanings. It was observed that food is the basic need that the homeless has more access and is one of the central axes to which the routine in the street is constructed. It defines the paths built by the street dwellers in the city and their potential relationships. The food assumes a divine character, due to the sacred acts and religious rites that involve the process of preparation, cooking and distribution of the same. It was also observed that food has a close relation with the notion of charity and piety, but, selectively. Charitable actions still transform food into a means of salvation / moral perfection. The food here plays an evangelizing role. Some actions of food distribution have the motto of dribbling the dignity of the homeless people. But, in fact, it is related to certain conceptions of human being that those actors possess. These actions aim to make the bodies of the homeless people docile and useful to work, fitting it into subjectivities according to the current logic.