ABSTRACT
The objective of this article is to think about the moral evaluations about the behavior of young and adult women in the affective and conjugal universe, paying attention to the complex processes of transformation and social reproduction. The data analyzed are based on research carried out in the Cape Verde archipelago with three sets of interlocutors, middle-aged women (mothers/grandmothers), girls and boys. Their speeches are crossed by interpretations, analyses, judgments and mutual accusations that deal with female behavior. Based on diverse ethnographic material, I argue that the core of such discourses is based on moralizing classification grids that have continuity in time and space, however, being experienced differently by these “today's girls”.
KEYWORDS:
Ethnography; conjugality; generation; morality; genre; Cabo Verde