Produção Nacional
Revisado por pares
Anthropology of Health in Brazil: A Border Discourse
2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 31; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/01459740.2011.598198
ISSN1545-5882
AutoresEsther Jean Langdon, Maj-Lis Follér,
Tópico(s)Indigenous Health and Education
ResumoAbstract This article traces the development of anthropological research on health in Brazil in light of discussions on modernity/coloniality and world anthropologies. Originating in the 1970s, stimulated by external and internal pressures for scientific production and along with the expansion of graduate programs, a network of anthropologists has consolidated and multiplied in Brazil. We describe the development of research groups, meetings, and publications in order to characterize Brazilian anthropology of health as a research program that distinguishes itself from North Atlantic medical anthropology. We examine the visibility and circulation of references in academic publications to explore the participation of Brazilians in the global discourse and, more specifically, in the North-South dialogue. From a comparative perspective, we argue that anthropological investigations of health reflect a perspective and ethos distinctive to Brazil and its historical and political processes. Keywords: academic visibilityanthropology of healthBrazilNorth-South dialogueresearch development ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors thank the Royal Society of Arts and Science in Göteborg (Kungliga Vetenskaps–och Vitterhetssamhället, Göteborg) for financial support for fieldwork in Brazil in February–March 2007 and Jubileumsfonden at the University of Gothenburg for the follow-up visit in April 2008. The National Council of Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) has supported Esther Jean Langdon as a CNPq researcher since 1988 Langdon , E. J. 1988 Saúde indígena: A lógica do processo de tratamento. Revista de Saúde em Debate . Janeiro : 12–15 . [Google Scholar]. We also thank Carlos E. Coimbra, Jr. for providing support for travel funds during the write-up period of this article. Notes The concept "border thinking" was developed by Walter Mignolo as "the moments in which the imaginary of the modern world system cracks" (2000 Mignolo , W. D. 2000 Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking . Princeton , NJ : Princeton University Press.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]:23). Three North Americans—Csordas (2008 Csordas , T. 2008 Corpo/Significado/Cura . Porto Alegre , Brazil : Editora UFRGS . [Google Scholar]), Greenfield (2009), and Nations (2009 Nations , M. 2009 Corte a Mortalha: O Cáculo Humano da Morte Infantile no Ceará . Rio de Janeiro : Editora Fiocruz . [Google Scholar])—have books published in Portuguese. Helman's Culture, Health and Illness (2009 Helman , C. 2009 Cultura, Saúde e Doença . 5a Edição . Porto Alegre , Brazil : Artes Médicas . [Google Scholar]) has been translated since 1984. Although his work is well accepted by health professionals, most anthropologists reject it on grounds that it promotes an instrumental use of anthropology. He translated Young's classic article (1976 Young , A. 1976 Some implications of medical beliefs and practices for social anthropology . American Anthropologist 78 ( 1 ): 5 – 24 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) for his students and planned on publishing a collection of translated articles. Earlier reviews include Queiroz (1980), Oliveira (1984 Oliveira , E. R. de. 1984 O Que É Medicina Popular . São Paulo : Brasiliense . [Google Scholar]), and Ibáñez-Novión (1983 Ibáñez-Novión , M. A. 1983 Prefácio. Antropologia e medicina: Algumas considerações. In Adaptação à Enfermidade e sua Distribuição Entre Grupos Indígenas da Bacia Amazónica. Caderno CEPAM No. l. M. A. Ibáñez-Novión and A. M. T. Ott, eds. Pp. 9–36. Belem, Brazil: Museu Goeldi/CNPq . [Google Scholar]). As a visiting professor at UNICAMP, Diana Brown taught Medical Anthropology in 1979, with Queiroz (1980), Cardoso (1999 Cardoso , M. 1999 Médicos e Clientela da Assistência Psiquiátrica à Comunidade . São Paulo : UFSCar . [Google Scholar]), and Oliveira (1984 Oliveira , E. R. de. 1984 O Que É Medicina Popular . São Paulo : Brasiliense . [Google Scholar]) as students. Reviews on the anthropology of health in Brazil (Diniz 1997 Diniz , D. 1997 O que é isso que Chamamos antropologia da saúde no Brasil? Pós: Revista Brasiliense de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Sociais 1 ( 1 ): 213 – 234 . [Google Scholar]; Carrara 1994 Carrara , S. 1994 Entre cientistas e bruxos: Dilemas e perspectivas da análise antropológica da doença . In Saúde e Doença: Um Olhar Antropológico . P. C. Alves and M. C. de S. Minayo , eds. Pp. 33 – 45 . Rio de Janeiro : Editora Fiocruz . [Google Scholar]; Leibing 2007 Leibing , A. 2007 Much more than medical anthropology: The healthy body and Brazilian identity . In Medical Anthropology . Regional. Perspectives and Shared Concerns. F. Saillant and S. Genest , eds. Pp. 58 – 70 . Oxford : Blackwell . [Google Scholar]) characterize studies in Indian health as focused on primitive medicine and ignore that the researchers of this theme share interests on the transformation of health practices and public policy that is fundamental to the development of the research program as a whole (Langdon and Garnelo 2004 Langdon , E. J. and L. P. Garnelo , eds. 2004 Sáude dos Povos Indígena: Reflexões Sobre Antropologia Participativa . Rio de Janeiro : Contra Capa Livraria/ABA . [Google Scholar]). Vibrant, Brazilian Virtual Anthropology (www.vibrant.org.br), the web journal published by ABA since 2004, accepts articles in English, French, and Spanish in an attempt to dialogue with the Eurocentric anthropologies as well as those of Latin America. The bibliometric research for the figure and tables was conducted at the University Library at the University of Gothenburg, by Håkan Carlsson, assisted by Anna Svensson. Scopus website: http://www.scopus.com. Additional informationNotes on contributorsEsther Jean LangdonESTHER JEAN LANGDON is Full Professor and CNPq Researcher 1B at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil. She has resided in Brazil since 1983, where she studies Indian health policy, anthropology of health, narrative, performance, and shamanism.Maj-Lis FollérMAJ-LIS FOLLÉR has a PhD in human ecology and is Associate Professor at the University of Gothenburg, Göteborg, Sweden. She has conducted fieldwork on health in Brazil and Peru and is currently studying AIDS and civil society in Mozambique. She recently edited "Brazil: Politics of Exclusion and Inclusion" in Anales Nueva Época No. 13.
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