“Marcha, soldado, cabeça de papel”: reprodução interpretativa e cultura de pares nas brincadeiras de crianças em uma vila militar

Abstract

Play is a behavioral system present in a diversity of animal species and in all mammals, including the human species, which is the one that plays most and for the longest time. Play seems to have been selected in the phylogenetic history of the homo sapiens due to its relevance in the development of behavioral flexibilization to collaborate with technologies, such as with a complex social structure. From an ontogenetic point of view, the play also seems to have relevance, because it is associated with immediate benefits - but also has medium and long-term benefits – in diverse spheres of development: physical, cognitive, emotional, socio-relational, and cultural. About this last one, it is known that play catalyzes the insertion and integration of the child into the sociocultural environment to which it belongs, promoting major dominance of the rules of that social group, of the prevalent standards and values, because, by playing, the child creates a ludic representation of the adult environment. However, through the play, the child does not only introject rules and social roles of the macro-culture to which it belongs, but it also reinterprets/re-signifies such elements, in an active and innovative form, phenomena called Interpretative Reproduction, and, from this process on, creates culture, the micro-culture of the play group and transmits these cultural innovations, horizontally, to its peers (Peer Culture) in a ludic way. Due to the imbricate relation between human development- context, diverse research has been conducted trying to explore and understand this kind of theme, even through the study of play. The literature on the theme includes investigations produced in the most diverse contexts and with very diverse populations: urban/rural zones, capital/interiors, external environments (such as streets) or intern (such as playgrounds), with indigenous populations, maroons (quilombolas), with children of the most diverse ages, genders, with traditional or electronic plays. The military environment, however, continues to be very little explored, although it is a relevant context for its idiosyncrasies. The goal of the study was to investigate and see if and how children, residents of a Marine town in Brazil, assimilate and re-signify during their social playing, a military culture in the construction of their ludic cultures, how and what they play, how they interact with their peers and with their cultural environment and which are the characteristics of their peer culture. The research was conducted in two phases, both in Vila Naval da Barragem (VNB). In phase 01, 40 episodes of play of diverse categories were observed and registered, in open environments of VNB, conducted in a free manner and without adult interference. In phase 02, 17 children were interviewed and were invited to express their point of view about the phenomena in question. Children aged between 4 and 10 participated in the study. In terms of delineation, we are talking about exploratory and descriptive research, of qualitative approach. By integrating the data of the two phases, three thematic categories were discussed: Play and Gender; the transmission of ludic culture at VNB; the naval symbology in games. Furthermore, the players are characterized and the VNB are characterized as development context. The research was conducted articulating elements of Evolutionary Developmental Psychology, Socio-Historical Psychology, and Sociology of Childhood. The results demonstrate a predominance of games and playful activities with traditional rules in the street context in non-coeval groups and varied in gender with strong feminine protagonism, a tendency to horizontal cultural transmissibility among children, barely any explicit presence of naval symbology in play but clearly re-signified when evidenced.