Resources to go beyond and judgment mechanic: on the comsuption of illegal substances as a cultural action by the youth in electronic music parties

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to
analyze and interpret the consumption of substances
commonly known as “psycho-actives”, “psycho-
tropics”, “toxic”, or “narcotic”, in the environment
of electronic dance music parties (raves), as cultural
practices fulfilled by middle-class youths, departing
from ethnographical fieldwork in the electronic dance
music scene of Porto Alegre/BR. Objectifying the dis-
tance from the common sense about these substanc-
es, I seek through ethnographic depiction to rebuild
some senses related to them by the natives in the local
context of symbolic appropriation and consumption.
Among these senses I underline the ritual one, the
social and ideological distinctions within the scene,
and the way to build an “electronic identity” as op-
posed to an “inclosing society”. That identity seems
to be locally defined through a paradoxical subver-
sion of both State official regulations for substances
consumption, and the libertarian ideals of First raves
through the reproduction of dominant values and
cultural practices.