The State, Indigenous Peoples, The Market, And Violence In Brazil In The 20th And 21st Centuries

• Published in: Urban anthropology and studies of cultural systems and world economic development Vol. 48; no. 3/4; pp. 481 - 529
• Main Authors: de Souza Lima, Antonio Carlos, de Oliveira, Bruno Pacheco
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Institute, Incorporated 01-12-2019; 01-10-2019
• ISSN: 0894-6019; 2328-1022

The aim of this article is to provide an overview of how the tutela or wardship exercised by the Brazilian State over indigenous peoples (the form of domination legally enshrined in the 1910s under the Republic) and assimilationism (the ideology that sees the destiny of indigenous peoples as an inexorable merging with the "national communion") were criticized and seemed to be superseded over the course of the twentieth century, but today have apparently made a comeback in government actions and words. This apparent return actually covers up an entirely different situation involving the enormous harassment of indigenous lands by agribusiness and mining companies. Since January 2019 and the advent of the new government, elected in 2018 after decades of seeking democratic construction in Brazil, the president's alt-right style discourse in favor of aggressive development and against the preservation of the environment and the ways of life of indigenous and other "traditional" peoples, together with the omission of public institutions responsible for protecting those populations, has led to a considerable increase in violence against them. Before discussing this question, we provide an outline of the "indigenous issue" in Brazil and how it differs from other Latin American countries in terms of demographics and the rights that indigenous peoples possess over the lands they traditionally occupy.