Lazer, trabalho e rituais de passagem na infância

Abstract

This paper is an unfolding of a larger research project developed at the Department of Physical Education, Federal University of Viçosa, which tried to interpret the cultural relations drawn between working time and leisure of working children in Viçosa and the meaningful representations given by these individuals subject to singular times. For this purpose, we performed a literature review focusing on texts in Sociology, Anthropology and studies related to childhood leisure, as well as the field research, of ethnographic character, with the duration of four months, which sought to monitor the daily activities of these individuals in their work time in the facilities of Federal University of Viçosa. The analysis of interviews and observations revealed that subjects experience such moments of work in different, adapted and re-signified ways and, concomitantly, as a rite of passage to adulthood, which largely depend on the production and reproduction of the social group in which they are inserted. It was found that while they seek resources in order to increase the income of their families, they also experience recreational and playful experiences. These practices were significant in the responses of all respondents, which shows how the entanglement of leisure time and work explicits a meaningful and subversive negotiation which is culturally contextualized with reality.