New consumption patterns of rural families

countryside’s life approaches the city

Abstract

This article analyzes the new consumption patterns of rural families. As a methodological procedure, 94 interviews were conducted with young people, adults and the elderly, who lived in the countryside, in a small agricultural economy municipality, located in the Zona da Mata of Minas Gerais, a region that has one of the lowest HDIs of State. The survey results showed that the new consumption patterns are closely related to the traffic between the countryside and the city. This routine displacement gives them access to new foods, ready-made clothes, means of transport, such as motorcycles, and means of communication, such as cell phones, household appliances, among many other consumer goods. The expansion of urban life patterns proved to be expressive in the rural landscape in the municipality analyzed. However, artifacts such as the wood stove coexisted with modern appliances such as the electric stove. Thus, a process of cultural hybridity was perceived with regard to the ways of living of the analyzed rural population. It’s concluded that the ways of living in the countryside, in this small municipality in Minas Gerais, incorporated new elements, maintaining both the dynamics of replacing some traditional artifacts and replacing others.