Construção e transparência de significados no ato de presentear em família em datas comemorativas

Abstract

The act gift-giving is a social and cultural phenomenon that occurs in different contexts and societies, moving people and the market in general. The offer and the exchange of gifts cover various types of relationships, but it is in the family that this act is more intense. Studies conducted up to then do not exploit this phenomenon in the perspective of culture and consumption, nor bring the act of making a gift specifically in the family. In an attempt to fill this gap, this study aim was to understand how the construction and transfer of meanings of making act a gift in the family on commemorative dates. Thus, the study proposes to understand the relationships between members of nuclear family, father, mother and son, which influence the supply and exchange of gifts during the Mothers' Day, Fathers' Day and Children' Day. To this end, using an approach interpretative, was performed a qualitative, exploratory and descriptive by in-depth interviews with the families. Eleven families from different social classes were investigated. The results obtained show that the act of making a gift is a social obligation, when it comes to commemorative dates. The communication is established between the donor and receptor depends on who is the giver of the donor intention and the context in which the act of gift It happens. The gifts categories offered among the family's member can be divided basically into material and immaterial and these are more related to the feelings that involve the supply and the exchange of gifts. In the family the making act a gift occurs on account of the feelings, of a social obligation, the strengthening of ties, clearing and receipt, condition, the latter two, from parents in relation to children. Finally, the meanings in common between the family's members in the making act a gift are the strengthening of ties and the feelings involved by the relationship and that the family itself is considered as a gift.