Anthropology and Indigenous People in Brazil: Ethical Engagement and Social Intervention

Abstract

From an outsider's perspective it would be no exaggeration to say that the origins and growth of anthropology in Brazil are synonymous with the study of its indigenous peoples. It is also synonymous with efforts to expose ethical issues and help defend against actions that compromise the rights of indigenous peoples. Indeed, anthropologists in Brazil are frequently outspoken in their opposition to Brazilian policies and programs that threaten to overwhelm the different sociocultural systems and practices of Indian people. Overall, the oppositional stances adopted by individual Brazilian anthropologists generally lack an organized, systematic intellectual approach to formulate questions or create alternative scenarios that would improve the lives of our country's native peoples. Nor have their efforts or positions on these issues meant that applied anthropology, per se, has become part and parcel of the academic curricula for up-and-coming anthropology students. In this article I wish to show how the growth of applied anthropology in Brazil has created a divide between many anthropologists who work in the "real world" of practice with minority peoples and others at the university who are training the next generation of Brazilian anthropologists.