Elenice BUENO; João Nicodemos Martins MANFIO and Rodrigo MARTINS.
RPGE – Revista on line de Política e Gestão Educacional, Araraquara, v. 28, n. 00, e023002, 2024. e-ISSN: 1519-9029
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22633/rpge.v28i00.19051 7
From the moment social relations are permeated by a hierarchy, which, as a result of a
system dominated by totality, differentiates individuals between "strong" and "weak," and still
has to accept this panorama as something natural, conflicts tend to be seen as irregularities
(DaMatta, 1997, p. 184).
The author explains:
In other words, the cases of applying "Do you know who you're talking to?"
reveal a social structure in which social classes also communicate through a
system of intersecting relationships (cf. Gluckman, 1965) that probably
partially inhibits conflicts and the system of social and political differentiation
based on the economic dimension of the system. In a society thus constituted,
where labor relations are added to a set of personal bonds governed by values
such as intimacy (cf. Barret, 1972), consideration, favor (cf. Schwartz, 1977),
respect (cf. Viveiros de Castro, 1974), and generalizing ethical and aesthetic
appreciations (such as the categories of clean, well-dressed, correct, astute,
good, genteel, etc.), there are possibilities for a continuous and multiple
hierarchization of all positions in the system, even when they are radically
differentiated or formally identical (DaMatta, 1997, p. 192, our translation).
Now, it's not just the economic issue at the center of the discussion, but the ability to
personalize situations when necessary and to use cunning to benefit oneself and justify any
necessary situation. Uncovering this detail interwoven into Brazilian culture can be extremely
useful in understanding, for example, the everyday situations in classrooms that, supported by
a conservative model, as is Brazilian society, point out and reaffirm the maintenance of a system
that cares little for a transformative and alternative logic of education. It means that the
oppressed class, by reproducing this model or employing the above-mentioned cunning tactics
(gaining advantages, finding a way), does not alter its condition, nor does it pay attention to its
condition of submissiveness and immobility. At another moment, DaMatta (1997) clarifies:
Because we generally have drastic laws that are impossible to rigorously obey,
we end up not complying with the law. Thus, we resort to the classic "jeitinho,"
which is nothing more than a cordial variant of "Do you know who you're
talking to?" and other more authoritarian forms that make it easier and allow
for circumventing the law or creating a noble exception in it that is socially
confirmed. But the use of the "jeitinho" and the "do you know who you're
talking to?" ends up engendering a very well-known and widespread
phenomenon among us: total distrust regarding universalizing rules and
decrees. However, this distrust generates its own antithesis, which is the
permanent hope of seeing the laws finally implemented and obeyed. We judge,
in this way, that society can be changed by the good laws that some
government may finally establish and enforce. (...) The force of the law is,
therefore, a hope. For the deprived, it serves as a lever to express a better future
(laws for us and not against us), and for the powerful, it serves as a tool to
destroy the political adversary. In either case, the law is rarely seen as law, that
is, as an impartial rule. Legislating, therefore, is more basic than enforcing the