Practices, themes and problems of anthropology in the present: global perspectives and critical contexts in the contemporary world - a mosaic

The current issue of Vibrant reflects the vitality of both the journal and the anthropology produced nationally and internationally by Brazilian anthropologists, whether working as individual researchers or through their dialogues, research networks and collaborative activities in international settings. Over the course of 2022 we published a diverse series of articles submitted to the journal independently. Covering a wide variety of themes, the nine articles making up this section explore the interactions between anthropology and other sciences, the challenges of the final years of the Bolsonaro government, activism in prisons, and the epistemological challenges of our métier ranging from an analysis of the classics to contemporary issues. The articles compose, then, a brief but expressive mosaic of the discipline’s fields and approaches in which traditional and contemporary themes of anthropological inquiry converge, interrogating Brazil’s excruciating reality over recent years. This is a theme also vividly present in two of the dossiers contained in this issue, which examine the ways in which a considerable portion of the Brazilian population (and beyond) has been vilified and their rights abused. Faced with this scenario, issues of gender and violence (Pereira, 2022) and forms of control and mobility (Rodrigues, 2022), as well as issues related to travestis, are examined in diverse contexts and through distinct approaches that mutually enhance one another.

The social forms of violence, which appear in different contributions to the issue, emerge in the work of Natalia Lago (2022) and her examination of the reality of the prison population, an important topic also addressed in the second part of the dossier “Indigenous Peoples, tribunals, prisons, and legal and public processes in Brazil and Canada,” organized by Stephen Grant Baines and Bruce Granville Miller (2021), the first part of which was published in Issue 18 of Vibrant. This dossier focuses on imprisoned indigenous persons, victims of layers of institutionalized violence. Contexts explored include those of Mato Grosso do Sul state (Aguilera Urquiza, Penteado Junior & Galícia, 2022) during the Covid-19 pandemic, São Gabriel da Cachoeira on the Upper Rio Negro in Amazonas state (Jucá, 2022), or, within the framework of interdisciplinary dialogues, the work of lawyers Ela Wiecko Wolkmer de Castilho and Tédney Moreira da Silva (2022). The dossier continues with studies exploring the diverse ways through which State institutions and judicial/public proceedings frequently serve interests adverse - when not directly opposed - to those of indigenous peoples in both Brazil and Canada. The dossier thus concludes with important comparative reflections on indigenous contexts and their relations with nation states.

The direction taken by Brazil in the years from 2019 to 2022 in terms of indigenist policies, led by a government ideologically aligned with the principles of the international far right, is examined in the work of Rufino (2022), an important reflection in a setting rife with all kinds of social tensions, as observable in this post-election moment of Brazil in late 2022.

The mosaic of anthropological work refracted here also includes dialogues with fields of knowledge such as engineering and mathematics (Kelly, 2022), the interactions between sensory experiences in music and the use of audiovisual media (Villela, 2022), or the exploration of the urban, a privileged thematic area in Brazilian anthropology as elsewhere, here set in dialogue with sociology and especially geography (Espinosa, 2022). These reflections are complemented by others on science in general (Marini & Marras, 2022) and anthropology in particular, whose historical trajectories are explored by João de Pina-Cabral in a shrewd essay (Pina-Cabral, 2022) surveying a new collection of books and, especially, the diversity of the discipline’s contemporary practices. These are likewise examined in the dossier “Reflections on Anthropological Practice Around the World,” the second issue of the Global Anthropological Dialogues section, inaugurated in the previous issue of Vibrant, which aims to provide an account of the international dialogues between the anthropology of and about Brazil and other world anthropologies, recognizing not only the need to surmount linguistic and hegemonic barriers but also pointing to the contemporary reality of the output of our intense joint efforts achieved with and through relations with colleagues from all over the world. Organized by Carmen Rial and Virginia Dominguez (Dominguez & Rial, 2022), the dossier contains papers by anthropologists from different anthropological associations in the context of the Global Survey on Anthropological Practice (GSAP). The reflections published here stem from the decisions to conduct the survey on a global scale taken through the network of the World Council of Anthropological Associations (WCAA), created in 2004 under the leadership of Gustavo Lins Ribeiro in Brazil, during the 24th Brazilian Anthropology Meeting, the survey was affirmed at the biennial meeting of the WCAA held in Taipei in October 2014 (Nešković, Mathur, McGrath, Accaioli, Millar & Metzner, 2022). The texts cover a variety of themes in the different national settings included in the survey (on its general aspects, see MacGrath, Accaioli, Millard, Metzner, Nešković & Vucinic, 2022). In this dossier we find a detailed reflection on specific scenarios like those of Brazil (Rial & Machado, 2022) Argentina (Ferrero, 2022) and China, including Hong Kong (Fan, 2022; Mathews, 2022), among others, as well as broader aspects present across multiple spaces.

Finally, and extremely important for innumerable reasons, the dossier “Covid-19 in Brazil” provides space for the exploration of a multitude of perspectives on the Covid-19 pandemic, stemming from diverse themes and fields of anthropological research. Organized by Jean Segata, Marcia Grisotti and Rozeli Porto (Segata, Grisotti & Porto, 2022), the dossier highlights the singular forms and effects of the pandemic in the Brazilian setting - effects conceived as part of the social impacts of the same far-right administration governing the country from 2019 to the end of this year. The research informing the dossier has generated knowledge that can assist in the reconstruction of policies designed to mitigate the pandemic’s impacts, both through the advance of scientific knowledge (especially anthropological) and in areas more directly linked to studies of health, or on numerous other aspects. The articles making up the dossier provide comparative viewpoints, coauthorships between researchers with varied levels of training, multidisciplinary approaches in dialogue with anthropology, and perspectives on the realities faced by Brazil as seen from abroad. It thus contains a valuable series of studies, many of them derived from contributions to the important Rede COVID-19 Humanidades MCTI(Covid-19 Humanities MCTI Network), dealing with a variety of topics pertaining to the Brazilian pandemic context, furnishing ample material for comparative works at international level.

We wish everyone an excellent read and a fine end to the year.

References

• AGUILERA URQUIZA, Antonio Hilario; PENTEADO JUNIOR, Ariovaldo Toledo; GALÍCIA, Caíque Ribeiro. 2022. “Relations between the Brazilian state and the incarceration of Indigenous peoples: a look at the situation in Mato Grosso do Sul in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic”. Vibrant, Virtual Braz. Anthr., 19, e19802. http://doi.org/10.1590/1809-43412022v19a802.
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/1809-43412022v19a802
• BAINES, Stephen Grant; MILLER, Bruce Granville. 2021, “Indigenous Peoples, tribunals, prisons, and legal and public processes in Brazil and Canada”.Vibrant, Virtual Braz. Anthr. , 18, e18700. http://doi.org/10.1590/1809-43412021v18a700.
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/1809-43412021v18a700
• CASTILHO, Ela Wiecko Volkmer; SILVA, Tédney Moreira da. 2022. “Incarceration of indigenous people in Brazil and resolution no. 287 of the National Council of Justice of Brazil”. Vibrant, Virtual Braz. Anthr. , 19, e19708. http://doi.org/10.1590/1809-43412022v19a708.
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/1809-43412022v19a708
• DOMINGUEZ, Virginia R.; RIAL, Carmen. 2022. “Introduction”. Dossier Reflections on anthropological practice around the world. Vibrant, Virtual Braz. Anthr. , 19.
• ESPINOSA, Horacio. 2022. “Lefebvre y el giro espacial em antropología urbana: Notas para una epistemología del espacio vivido”. Vibrant, Virtual Braz. Anthr. , 19.
• FERRERO, Lía, 2022, Antropología internacional o Antropologías del Mundo? La encuesta mundial de práctica antropológica-GSAP vista desde Argentina, Vibrant, Virtual Braz. Anthr. , 19.
• JUCÁ, Felipe Pereira. 2022. “We’re Totally Worthless” - An Anthropological Approach to Incarcerated Indigenous Persons in the City of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Amazonas. http://doi.org/10.1590/1809-43412022v19a805
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/1809-43412022v19a805
• FAN, Ke. 2022. “History, Practice, Limitations, and Prospects: Anthropology in China”. Vibrant, Virtual Braz. Anthr. , 19.
• KELLY, José Antonio. 2022. “Reflections on mathematical figures and engineering approaches in anthropology”. Vibrant, Virtual Braz. Anthr. , 19.
• LAGO, Natália. 2022. “Reports of a struggle Prison, gender, and activism in an association of prisoners’ relatives”. Vibrant, Virtual Braz. Anthr. , 19.
• MACGRATH, Pam; ACCIAIOLI, Greg; MILLARD, Adelle; METZNER, Emily; NEŠKOVIĆ, Vesna; VUČINIĆ Chandana. 2022. “The WCAA Global Survey of Anthropological Practice (2014-2018): Reported Findings”. Vibrant, Virtual Braz. Anthr. , 19.
• MARINI, Marisol; MARRAS, Stelio. 2022. “Expose and protect: reflections on experimental scientific practices based on a case study”. Vibrant, Virtual Braz. Anthr. , 19.
• MATHEWS, Gordon. 2022. “Anthropology in Hong Kong According to the GSAP: A Celebration of Public Outreach”. Vibrant, Virtual Braz. Anthr. , 19.
• NEŠKOVIĆ, Vesna Vučinić; MATHUR, Chandana; MCGRATH, Pam; ACCAIOLI, Greg; MILLAR, Adelle; METZNER, Emily. 2022. “A Brief History of the First Global Survey of Anthropological Practice and Some Lessons Learned”. Vibrant, Virtual Braz. Anthr. , 19.
• PEREIRA, Pedro Paulo Gomes. 2022. “Poetic opening stanched by violence”. Vibrant, Virtual Braz. Anthr. , 19.
• PINA-CABRAL, João. 2022. “Anthropology’s Ancestors: A review essay on a new Berghahn collection”. Vibrant, Virtual Braz. Anthr. , 19.
• RIAL, Carmen; MACHADO, Lia Zanota; 2022, “Brazilian Anthropology as seen in ABA data for the Global Survey of Anthropological Practice. From an imaginary nation to a defense of rights”. Vibrant, Virtual Braz. Anthr. , 19.
• RODRIGUES, André Rocha. 2022. “Perpetual motion: Displacement of travestis from an ethnographic perspective”. Vibrant, Virtual Braz. Anthr. , 19.
• RUFINO, Marcos Pereira. 2022. “The equality trap: notes on indigenista policies in the Bolsonaro government”. Vibrant, Virtual Braz. Anthr. , 19.
• SEGATA, Jean; GRISOTTI, Marcia; PORTO, Rozeli. 2022. “Covid-19 in Brazil”. Vibrant, Virtual Braz. Anthr. , 19, e19900. http://doi.org/10.1590/1809-43412022v19e900.
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/1809-43412022v19e900
• VILLELA, Alice. 2022. “Film, music and sensory experience: questions concerning a project to film participatory musical performances”. Vibrant, Virtual Braz. Anthr. , 19.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  13 Feb 2023
• Date of issue
  2022