“Tomas um mate?”: uma análise da cultura de consumo do chimarrão em um contexto urbano

Abstract

Chimarrão has cultural, social and economic importance to Rio Grande do Sul. Mate, as it is called by the gauchos, is savored in different contexts in the state. In the city of Porto Alegre, seeing people sipping this beverage at home, parks, workplaces, universities, shopping malls, among other places, is very common. Based on this ubiquous feature of chimarrão in the lives of a great part of the gauchos, this paper aims at understanding the culture of consumption of chimarrão in a contemporary and urban context . In order to achieve this goal, the concepts of consumption and culture based on the Consumer Culture Theory approach are explored, showing a dialogue between the following two areas: Anthropology and Marketing/Consumer Behavior.The proposed outline is qualitative, and the adopted method was Ethnography, which lasted six months in the city of Porto Alegre, when parks, enterprises, family houses and other places were visited.Thus, this paper was written based on an interpretive approach, resorting to multiple techniques of data collection, such as participant and non-participant observation, self-directed interviews, visual data (fieldwork pictures, media ressources), a social network (Facebook) and in-depth interviews.The results are presented in four sets of categories: 1) Authenticity in chimarrão; 2) The edenic reason of chimarrão; 3) The purposes of chimarrão and its affective meanings; 4) Chimarrão – the sacred and the profane. The obtained results in each one of theses categories indicate that individuals use consumption objects in order to “grant authenticity to their actions”. This means that consumers personalize their chimarrão intending to create an idea of an unique product: “this is my chimarrão”, as one of the informers states. The results of this study also indicates that consumers drink chimarrão in order to be closer to nature and that the habit of consumming this beverage is connected with affective issues that remind some feelings of joy, relaxation, peace, tranquility, longing for the past, pleasure, sociability and security.It was also observed that profaning acts, such as stirring the bomba or not following the right order inside the chimarrão circle, are questioned by the group or by the individual himself, with a view to maintaing the feeling of sacredness. Even in an urban setting, consumers express a wish of wanting to come back to the traditions, to keep what is sacred. Therefore, inferring that the traditions are being reinvented without losing their essence is possible. In sum, this paper reflected upon the meanings, the consumer market and the symbolic system that permeate this habit, allowing, thereby, to contribute to the comprehension of the consumer behavior phenomenon.