Title not available in English.

Abstract

Marriage and crisis: Brazil in the eighties. The paper examines the relationships between the economic crisis in Brazil during the eighties and nuptiality behavior. The consideration on the possible impacts of the Brazilian crisis on nuptiality suffers the effect of the little attention given to this component of population dynamics by specialists. More than this, however, the difficulties arise from serious gaps in the available data and on the type of registered information. The important legal changes on marriage formation and dissolution in the seventies in Brazil have also affected vital registration, thus affecting nuptiality records. Despite the shortcomings, the analysis is able to document important losses in marriages for the Country as a whole ocurred in the eighties, a trend which paralels the economic difficulties confronted by the population at that time. Never¬theless, the authors call attention to the fact that there seemed to coincide the economic crisis and the deepening of longer run trends for changing modes of Iife in Brazil, with far reaching implications for marriage formation and dissolution. At the center of these changes are important redefinitions of female expectations as to marriage life and the emergence of competing alternatives for personal fullfilment. As to the new economic constraints, the authors call attention to the possible contradictory effects of worsening economic conditions upon marriage, and to the need of a prospective investigation in the light of new symptoms of dissatisfaction among the population, as expressed by the new phenomenon of emigration.