ISSN:
1466-1381
Language:
English
Titel der Quelle:
Ethnography
Publ. der Quelle:
London : Sage
Angaben zur Quelle:
Vol. 16, No. 2 (2015), p. 207
DDC:
390
Abstract:
Brazil is a highly unequal and socially segregated society. Within this context, Brazilians' everyday lives are marked by the constant reading of bodies: Who is/could be/looks dangerous? Who should be avoided? Poor working-class people are painfully aware of readings merging poverty and criminality. Based on ongoing ethnographic fieldwork among middle-class and lower-income persons in southeastern Brazil, this photo essay investigates some visual mechanisms at play in processes of social categorization. With a point of departure in the rhetorical question 'Have you ever seen a thief wearing a uniform?' uttered by unskilled workers at moments when their moral status is questioned, this essay examines the dynamic tensions linking physical appearance, morality and social hierarchies in contemporary Brazil. It highlights some of the ways through which unskilled workers' uniforms can be a marker of both marginality and morality as they provide a visual basis for classism in everyday interaction and signal, in other situations, group affiliation, honesty and worker pride.
URL:
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-108869
