“Somebody has to do it”

Meanings and perceptions of work between gravediggers in central-west Brazil

Abstract

This article proposes the study of the perceptions of work and sociability strategies of gravediggers, inside and outside their profession. Considering that it is a profession of high physical and emotional demand, immersed in a subject surrounded by taboos and reservations - death - these workers perform forms of adaptation and attribution of multiple meanings to their work routine. The methodology consisted of theoretical analysis on the theme, by consulting bibliographic sources, combined with field data collection carried out with burial professionals in the public cemeteries of a large city, located in the Brazilian Middle West. The results point to an adaptation to living conditions, taken as temporary until obtaining a less stressful job, which proceeds in the construction of trajectories of justification and resistance to the multiple demands of the burial profession. It also raises generational differences in the meaning of the job, the processes of physical and mental illness, and the different strategies of social positioning of workers, among themselves and in relation to their surroundings.