Contemporary Witches: Identity Construction of Slow Beauty

Abstract

This study proposes to understand the construction of identity and its relation with the body in the slow beauty community Vivo Naturalmente. Based on theories of digital anthropology from the English tradition, consumption as a cultural process, and meanings attributed to the body, an ethnography is conducted unveiling the meanings behind practices of the community. A portrait is sketched of the identity of “witch” constructed in the community’s face-to-face and online interactions. Through a transformation that begins with the ritual of passage, the members experience a retaking of the body, negotiating women's social values and meanings. The study also identifies a pursuit for an apparently contradictory feminine essence, but which reveals female power, and its political and social dimensions.

Community; Body; Identity; Slow Beauty; Consumption