GIFT AND FAMILY CONFLICTS IN THE CONTEXT OF DIVORCE: A RELATIONAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

This article investigates family conflicts in the context of divorce, considering the relational perspective and using Marcel Mauss's gift theory as its central axis. It engages with Pierre Bourdieu's concept of symbolic capital and Viviana Zelizer's economy of care. It assumes that marital separation is a process that breaks the networks of reciprocity and reconfigures the emotional, material and symbolic exchanges that sustained family ties. The results reveal how the division of assets, child custody negotiations and financial disputes go beyond legal and economic limits, being permeated by emotional meanings and expectations of recognition of the contributions made during the marriage. They highlight that material goods and gestures of care function as expressions of emotional and social investment, becoming central elements in post-divorce conflicts. By examining how symbolic and affective exchanges are reinterpreted in the process of marital dissolution, the research contributes to the understanding of the relational dynamics that shape family ties after the breakup, emphasizing the persistence of obligations of reciprocity and loyalty in a scenario of disputes and restructuring of family relationships.