Vigiar outros corpos e contestar suas barrigas: um estudo sobre processos de construção do corpo feminino entre um grupo de mulheres na Cidade de Maputo

Abstract

This research report looks at body building processes. This subject has been studied from the biological approach that considers the construction of the body associated with a neuro-physiological phenomenon, from which the body is seen as having a natural dimension, justified by biomedical practices and explained in an essentialist way through the biological dimension. If, on the one hand, this approach allows us to understand how the body is constructed through the material dimension, on the other hand, it loses sight of the symbolic dimension associated with it. From the realization of the limitation of the biological approach, I set out to conduct a research taking into account the socio-cultural and symbolic dimensions that structure the body building process. To carry out the research, a qualitative approach was adopted that favored the ethnographic method with the use of observation techniques, informal conversations and semi-structured interviews. From the collected ethnographic data, the study reveals that the process of construction of the female body among the group of women studied is done by watching each other's bodies and by contesting or even eliminating their own bellies. The study also shows that within this process, eliminating the belly emerges as a practice that stands out, and appears as a continuation of a traditional logic institutionalized by "tying the belly" that was already some time ago and that today has taken on new forms that coexist with traditional logic.