Lost Bullets: Fetishes of Urban Violence in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Abstract

This article contrasts how stray bullets are spoken about by residents of a poor neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with how they are depicted in the media and by residents of wealthier neighborhoods. In order to examine the role that stray bullets play in cultural constructions of violence and insecurity, it uses the theory of fetishism to analyze the implications of speaking of bullets as if they were alive. It argues that representations of urban violence are often centered upon concerns with transgression and often contain elements which resist fixation, thereby producing greater anxiety and fear. Analyzing how residents of Rio talk about stray bullets reveals that collective understandings of violence often contain elements which resist naturalization, producing a state of both security and insecurity, or a state of (in)security.