O ar da cidade torna todos livres: família e religião no Jardim Miriam – São Paulo

Abstract

This research aims at analysing the transformations of social and anthropological relationships that have taken place in the family and religion in Jardim Miriam, south of São Paulo. The study focuses on the strong influence of the culture of individualism and consumerism, which cause tensions and adaptations among the people inside and outside the families. The new social settings, which takes place due to multiple forces originate from different areas. It breaks (deterritorialises) the traditional family structures and creates a new form (territorialises) of living the family relationships, thought of and imagined by the individuals. The theoretical tools to support this research based on the framework of Social Sciences which provided support for reflections and analyses about family and religion in Jardim Miriam. It was necessary to trace an ethnographic route with theoretical and methodological support on urban, religious and family studies. The thinkers such Max Weber, Pierre Bourdieu, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Anthony Giddens, Michel Maffesoli, Clifford Geertz, Eunice Durham, Eliane Gouveia, among others, provided the epistemological elements for data analysis. The multimethod was used to carry out this study and qualitative research: individual interview and observation of participant in different negotiable situations of residents in the neighbourhood and outside. The research showed the ability of religion to adjust to new contexts, by entering into fierce competition with religious speakers in the neighbourhood, offering new meanings and implications to individuals who experience symbolic nomadism in the urban context. The study presents the signs of individualization of one‟s faith where religious pluralism is practised within the same family and this experience is increasingly felt due to the pandemic of Covid-19 in 2020. The influences of social networks (face-to-face and virtual) and the social developments of those who live one‟s faith and those who go through different religious experiences were seen and discussed. In this thesis, we effort is made to understand the forces of transformation which take place in the social fabric, mainly in the context of the family and religion, through changes in the standard of living of individuals within families and their pursuit for meanings and impacts in the religious field, affected by urban culture