Abstract
This paper discusses the emotional grammar associated with learning an ecologically oriented way of life, based on ethnographic research carried out at an outdoor day camp called “Tardes no Verde” (“Green Afternoons”), where children participate in games, hike trails and engage in outdoor activities on the outskirts of Porto Alegre, Brazil. We argue that the emotional grammar is not explicitly taught by the teachers in charge, but is instead learned by the children from language games that conform to a way of life that is more conscious of nature. We suggest that this “alternative” emotional grammar is constructed according to two logics. The first concerns individual choice and active participation, and governs emotions associated with active and creative engagement. The second relies on the distinction between nature and culture and governs feelings that inform how different human and non-human entities, which belong to the totalizing domain of nature, relate to each other.
Keywords:
body; emotions; child; forms of life
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