Dos usos e significados do corpo na prática de swordplay boffering: uma observação participante no Parque Municipal Pedra da Cebola

Abstract

The central objective of this dissertation is to understand the uses and meanings of the body produced specifically in the practice of Swordplay Boffering, of a group that frequents weekly a public park located in the city of Vitória/ES/Brazil. To conduct the research, we used some strategies found in anthropological/ethnographic studies, namely: participant observation, field diary entries, semi-structured interviews, and photographic records. It is worth pointing out that these resources were used in two distinct moments, the first linked to the research phase of the Scientific Initiation and the second linked to the Master's course, as a means of continuing the production of data. After this process, we sought to reflect on and analyze the data produced, based on systematized readings that resulted in the creation of a specific topic for the discussion of the literature review and also for the discussion of the data produced, the latter taking into consideration mainly the recurrent events most emphasized by the research participants. In the literature review, we offered a dialog with different conceptual categories of authors from the humanities and Physical Education fields in order to establish a reflection axis with the questions that surrounded the experiences in the field, such as the relation between the body and the city, since the corporal activities (swordplay practice) were developed in a public space. As an unfolding of the investigation, we arrived at the construction of three axes of analysis in line with the objectives of the study: a) Swordplay, body and technology: between the practice and the social; b) Between the internal logics and the control of the body in the Aesir clan; and c) No pain, no gain: from performance to the instrumentalization of the body. With these categories we seek to understand in the first axis how the uses and meanings of the body arise in the relationship between the Aesir Clan and the media, given the numerous activities and information captured and shared through these platforms. In the second axis, we resume some discussions started in the Scientific Initiation in an attempt to interpret mainly the impact of the internal logics of the group in the uses of the body, the collective control and the punitive practices. The third axis offers a dialog with the issues linked to the gain of resistance and performance during the practice, trying to understand mainly the impacts of these actions on the body of the practitioners. The materials analyzed and reflections produced allowed us to relativize the direct impact of the practice and the formation of the group in the lives of the practitioners, due to the variety of consumption, motivations, sociability bonds, etc.