Noivado e ritos pré-nupciais: um estudo sobre significados, experiências e codificações de uma unidade cultural

Abstract

This thesis aims to identify the place of engagement and prenuptial rites in anthropo-logical theory. Based on the concept of cultural unity, it analyzes the way in which bridal beliefs and behaviors are formulated, stimulated or repressed having as an interface the decomposition of the codes that make this ritual the main expression of the alliance process in urban segments. Drawing attention to the literature review, the first part of the work emphasizes the plurality of interpretive cut-outs and the relevance of enga-gement as a category of analysis, whether within contemporary rituals or the interpre-tation of the alliance in kinship studies. This part of the thesis is also dedicated to iden-tifying the values, processes and symbols that regulate the choice of engagement as a type of relationship in the urban world, adopting, as a source of reflection, the contri-butions of Thales de Azevedo and the vocabulary that permeates their meanings in social networks, press and cinema. The second part of the thesis emphasizes the in-terlocution with the subjects, having the same occurred from interviews conducted as bride and groom in the city of Belém, Teresina and Brasília. Its purpose is to describe the process by which bridal codes are incorporated into the biography and socialization of the interlocutors, taking into account their role as agents and interpreters of this experience. The third part, finally, explores the mediation carried out by the market and the Catholic Church, which, acting as codifying institutions, discipline, respectively, the symbols around the nuptial ritualization and the values and meanings related to the conjugal identity. This approach is based on ethnographic research conducted at Bridal Fairs and Marriage Preparation Meetings ("engagement courses") in the cities of Be-lém and Teresina.