ATTACKS ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN TODAY’S BRAZIL: THE IMAGINARY DIMENSION IN THE TENSION BETWEEN ASSIMILATING AND ACCEPTING INDIGENOUS DIFFERENCES

Abstract

By selecting historical aspects related to indigenous land rights in Brazil since the colonial period, I made a correlation between legislation, governmentality techniques and an imaginary of broad appeal and of long term in society, in order to shed light on the current attack on indigenous rights in the country by politicians and associated economic interests. I check three dimensions of discourse and the techniques that they articulate: economic, legal, both only intelligible under the very landmarks of otherness constructions in the Brazilian nation-state; and a "mythical" dimension, understood here in the structuralist sense of imaginary. In the latter, I find an idealization that moves between the alliance possible and tutelage/impotence of the Indians. I conclude that the imaginary dimension adds meaning to the understanding of the permanent tension still operating in the Brazilian nation today between assimilation and admission of indigenous difference.