Infâncias no campo: brinquedo, brincadeira e cultura

In this article, with an essay-like character, the authors seek to discuss children’s games ascultural practices, regarding their presence in childhoods lived in rural contexts or in theso-called traditional communities in Brazil. Through a dialogue with “Childhood Studies”,we intend to analyze the images we construct about who these children are as well as whattheir games tell us about their lives and forms of sociability. We will analyze a smallrepertoire of toys as being cultural artifacts produced by children, problematizingchildren’s cultures and their forms of symbolic production. We seek here, in relation to ourexperiences of research and teaching training, an appreciation of the cultural meaning ofgames as lying between the universality of forms and the expressions of the diversity ofplayfullness, as a product of the sociocultural universe where they are located. In additionto this, we will try to interpret the meanings these experiences can have for children. Wewill also engage in a brief dialogue with the researches that focus on the childhoods in thecountryside, analyzing their contributions to an understanding of playing as a culturalpractice. Finally, the dimension of the territory for playing is pointed out as a centralelement in the processes of apprehension of the world, of creation and participation of thechild in the social scene. Some challenges regarding research are aroused by the discussionundertaken here. We will argue that these challenges can instigate new writing exerciseson this subject. Neste artigo, de contornos ensaísticos, busca-se discutir a brincadeira como prática cultural e sua presença nas infâncias vividas em contextos do campo ou das chamadas comunidades tradicionais no Brasil. No diálogo com os Estudos da Infância, pretende-se analisar as imagens que construímos sobre quem são essas crianças e o que suas brincadeiras informam sobre suas vidas e formas de sociabilidade. Analisaremos como artefatos culturais um pequeno repertório de brinquedos produzidos por crianças, problematizando as culturas infantis e suas formas de produção simbólica. Buscamos aqui, na relação com nossas experiências de pesquisa e formação de professores, apreender o significado cultural da brincadeira na tensão entre universalidade das formas e expressões da diversidade do brincar, produto do universo sócio-cultural onde se situa e ainda analisar os significados dessas experiências para as crianças. Ensaiamos ainda um pequeno diálogo com pesqu