REPRESENTAÇÕES DO LUCRO NO COMÉRCIO DE ARTIGOS RELIGIOSOS: interpretações do sagrado e do profano no cotidiano das organizações

We analyze in this paper which and how social representations of profit are produced in the commercialization of religious products. The analysis is oriented by an interpretative approach, which presupposes that sharing representations is a way to share an idea, and, therefore, to affirm an identity and a belonging to a group. Studies in the fields of Social Psychology, Sociology, and Anthropology are the basis of this research. We used content analysis technique to analyze interviews with thirty organizations from the following religions: catholic, evangelic, spiritism,  umbanda  and  candomble , located in four cities. Results show that the process of generation of profit representational content undergoes different discrepancies: distortions, supplementations, and subtractions. And, thus, this representation reveals its practical character of adjusting the subject to its surroundings, its orientation of action, and its interpretation of the experience and of conduct organization in material, moral and symbolic contexts.