Estilos naturais: uma bricolagem no Brasil urbano

Abstract

This work focus on the construction of senses and meanings within a natural eating style. It starts from the principle that the very act of symbolizing is a way to organize life that merges both singular and collective dimensions into a socially informed body. It explores the conceptualization and denaturalization, in the terms applied by Luz and Bourdieu, as methodological strategies to substantiate a field work with naturists, vegans and living food followers, all grouped within the analytical category of natural urban eating practices. It also explores bricolage practice as a handson symbolic construction strategy and discusses its effect, at times favorable or not, on the fight against the crisis worsened by social inequality. We have come to three groups of meanings in our interpretative analysis: that of re-sacred Nature, that of impurity assigned to red meat (mainly beef, lamb etc.) and that of freedom expressed in the reproduction of the urban social movement called counterculture. They are all intertwined into a system of symbols built within a specific field, according to the rules of the game also built in the field, which grants strengths to the actors, and follow several interests. We have reached the conclusion that an interpretative analysis contributes to the organization of the symbolic exchanges which, unlike monetary exchanges, demand the knowledge of both the specific field and the social relationships in which senses and meanings are (re)produced in the natural style. Thus, we understand that we are making a contribution to the inclusion of social sciences in the field of nutrition.