Pop goes the weasel: an anthropological approach of pawning as a credit instrument

Abstract

This text discusses pawning – a very traditional institution, which is still present in the market, competing with a wide diversity of credit mechanisms that has been increasingly offered to the low-income population recently in Brazil. The market as a social institution, relationships between the market and household economy and between economic and symbolic values are analyzed relative to that financial instrument. The analysis is based on an ethnographic survey carried out using observation and interviews with people that use to go to the pawn sector of a financial institution, as well as the institution employees responsible for this credit line. Data an information supplied by institutions that are part of the Brazilian National Financial System, news articles, and historical and literature references were also used.