Name: ROGERIO COSTA DOS REIS
Publication date: 12/08/2024
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| HARUF SALMEN ESPINDOLA | Examinador Externo |
| IZABEL MISSAGIA DE MATTOS | Examinador Externo |
| JOANA DARC FERNANDES FERRAZ | Examinador Externo |
| JOSEMAR MACHADO DE OLIVEIRA | Examinador Interno |
| LUIZ CLAUDIO MOISES RIBEIRO | Presidente |
Pages
Summary: This paper is the result of an effort to understand the actions of the Brazilian state with regard to indigenous policies between 1910 and 1970, a period in which the SPI and FUNAI, federal government agencies, were responsible for controlling indigenous peoples in Brazil. The research is based on documentary research, seeking to analyze official documents available at the Museum of Indigenous Peoples and literature related to the subject. During the Republican period, theories linked to cultural evolutionism produced currents of thought that understood that all societies went through evolutionary processes. From this perspective, written by Europeans themselves, they were considered the most advanced in terms of civility and thought that all societies should pursue this process of political and material development. This understanding produced public policies aimed at transforming indigenous peoples from “backward” individuals into “civilized” citizens. In order to implement this policy, the state created the Indian Protection Service - SPI, which acted to protect indigenous peoples with the clear aim of “civilizing” them. What happened, however, were cases of the most profound violence, as attested to in the inquiry produced by the prosecutor Jáder Figueiredo, which recounts in detail countless cases of violence practiced by SPI agents. The Figueiredo Report led to the end of the old SPI and the creation of FUNAI. However, the actions undertaken by the new indigenist body did not escape the characterization of institutional violence. FUNAI maintained actions ranging from the transfer of the Krenak to other lands to the construction of an indigenous prison with disciplinary functions that more closely resembled a concentration camp. Thus, we conclude by demonstrating that the Brazilian state, even after the republican period, maintained actions that seriously violated the human rights and dignity of the indigenous peoples of the Doce River valley.
