Communication as ritual (James Carey) and folkcommunication (Luiz Beltrão): theoretical models at the interface with culture

Abstract

The article presents an interpretation of two theoretical models in the emergence of the communicational scientific field: the ritual vision of the communication, of the American James Carey, and the folkcommunication, of the Brazilian Luiz Beltrão. The two models are constructed having as a historical condition the nuances of the cultural fields in the USA and Brazil in the second half of the twentieth century. The working hypothesis is that the models demand epistemological renegotiations in the scientific field of communication, insofar as they suggest a distancing from the technological paradigm constituted by modern mass communication and the model of communication as information diffusion. The interdisciplinary practices of research promoted an openness to theoretical approaches related to the field of culture, framing objects and themes of research according to different cultural dynamics in the USA and Brazil. The comparative study of the models by James Carey and Luiz Beltrão provides clues to discussions about the constant changes in communication processes in capitalist modernization, media concepts according to patterns of socioeconomic development, the comprehensiveness of the communication field and the interdisciplinary research possibilities between communication and culture.