Recently completed field studies and research from primary sources on Brazil constitute the main interest of this seminar. Brazilian, the U.S. and other visiting scholars participate, contributing their interpretations of recent events. Portuguese may be spoken whenever convenient.
“Guaraná: The History and Historiography of a Brazilian National Icon.”
Seth Garfield , University of Texas, Austin Abstract
Abstract
Although guaraná soda is an icon of Brazilian national identity—just as Coke is in the United States—we have lacked a full-length academic study in Portuguese or English dedicated to the history of the beverage or the namesake Amazonian plant. The omission is curious, given the extensive historiography on samba, Carnival, soccer, and other hallmarks of Brazilian nationalism that are often touted as indicators of the nation’s so-called racial democracy. This talk examines the epistemological biases and evidentiary challenges that contributed to this lacuna, detailing new methodological approaches that can shed light on the voyage of a pre-Columbian cultivar of the Sateré-Mawé people to the trace ingredient of a multi-billion dollar industry, and suggesting new directions more broadly for Brazilian historiography. As a flash of Indigenous empowerment, a fetish of Brazil’s scientific community and agro-industrial economy, a conjurer of myths of race and nature, and a figuration of modernity in the “land of the future,” guaraná offers multiple arenas for historical and ethnographic investigation.
09/29/2022
Zoom 7:00 PM
The Implications of the October 2, 2022 election for the Future of Brazil | joint session with The Seminar on Latin America
In 2018, Brazil elected Jair Messias Bolsonaro, a far-right congressman and retired army captain. His presidential campaign focused on ridding the country from corruption, curbing leftist educational pedagogy, and promoting public safety, which included making it easier for civilians to arm themselves. He also negated the existence of racism while referring to racial-ethnic minorities in dismissive ways and fostered both a misogynist and a homophobic stance. Throughout his campaign, Bolsonaro made obvious his admiration and emulation of Donald Trump, the U.S. president at the time. Bolsonaro won both rounds of the presidential election, ultimately garnering 55% of the electorate. He won in the 10 wealthiest cities and in overwhelmingly White municipalities, and he also did well among Evangelical voters, with whom his conservative agenda resonated. Overseas, his most impressive win was in the United States, where the majority of the expatriate Brazilians who are eligible to vote reside. During his tenure, charges of corruption were leveled against him and his family, violence indices have gone up, and the economy has regressed to the point where famine is again a most pressing issue, all in the context of the viral pandemic that, like Trump, Bolsonaro all but ignored. In less than a month’s time, Brazil will ready itself for a new presidential election. This time, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the former president who was imprisoned and prohibited from running in 2018, appears as Bolsonaro’s strongest opponent, according to the latest surveys. Ever Trump’s follower, Bolsonaro has questioned the legitimacy of electronic votes and has more than hinted that he will not accept defeat. This presentation examines the stakes of the imminent Brazilian presidential election: the polarization between Bolsonaro and Lula constituents despite the presence of other candidates; the impact of presidential debates; the role of race, class, and religion; the increase in political violence; and the threat to democracy in Brazil.
10/03/2022
Zoom 7:00 PM
From Bolsonarism to pandemic alt-sciences: a digital anthropology approach to anti-structural publics in Brazil (Joint meeting with 531)
Letícia Cesarino, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
11/17/2022
Zoom 6:30 PM
"Remembering the Coup, Celebrating the Revolution: Securitization of Memory and Mnemonic Disputes in Brazil."
Erica Simone Resende, University of Copenhagen Abstract
Abstract
Led by the Armed Forces, the 1964 coup in Brazil inaugurated a dark time in Brazil, with suspension of political rights, censorship, and human rights violations in the interest of national security in the context of the Cold War. Although the 2011 National Truth Commission was able to produce a report on the human rights violations, it seems many Brazilians prefer to forget the “years of lead.” On one hand, the military regime remains a scar in Brazil’s history, with many victims being formally recognized by the National Truth Commission final reports. On the other hand, the 2018 election of Jair Bolsonaro, a retired Army Captain who had previously called the military regime a “glorious period” in which Brazil had enjoyed “20 years of order and progress,” has produced a cabinet mostly occupied by retired military officers who do not feel that they should be apologetic towards the 1964 coup. The aim of this presentation is to highlight the dynamics of an on-going mnemonic war over the very meaning of 1964 as a historical event of political rupture in Brazil, which points to the securitization of memory in Bolsonaro’s regime.
12/07/2022
Faculty House, Columbia University / Zoom 7:00 PM
the Vale de Amanhacer (joint meeting with the Seminar on Studies of Religion and the Seminar on Contents and Methods in the Social Sciences)
This seminar addresses ‘trance-formative therapeutic experiences’, namely, how mediumistic trance is learned for therapeutic purposes fostering a transformation. It calls for an attention to the process of learning spirit mediumship, comparing experiences across the Atlantic between Brazil, the US, and Europe, and also across the spiritual and biomedical domains. It refers in particular to the transnational spread of the Brazilian Christian Spiritualism of the Vale do Amanhecer (Valley of the Dawn) and the development of what mediums describe as ‘mediumistic trance’. The mediums’ narratives of their therapeutic itineraries highlight two levels of movement: one between different therapeutic domains; and the other one unfolds through the phenomenology of mediumistic trance, and is sensorial, imaginal, and affective. The experiences of those who undergo mediumistic training show how besides spreading in Europe through transnational religions these practices are also to be understood as embedded in a growing network of therapeutic practices. This demands to overcome some conceptualizations of spirit mediumship and possession as being individual psychic phenomena or marginal practices belonging to some distant otherness. Instead, this seminar proposes to tackle them along with contemporary therapeutic practices operating besides the biomedical field, and so in relation to both spiritual and therapeutic networks.
12/15/2022
Zoom 7:00 PM
An Update on the Government of Brazil – After 2023
Márcio Fortes, Brazilian politician, Former Brazilian Congressman Abstract
Abstract
The presentation will explore the configuration of the new Brazilian congress and the relationship between it and the executive branch. The new state governors will be examined, their administrations and their relationship to the new executive branch and its powers. Finally, a perspective for the nation for 2026 will be explored.
01/26/2023
Zoom 7:00 PM
Why Northeast Brazil Rejected Bolsonaro in 2022
Aaron Ansell, Virginia Technical University Abstract
Abstract
Many political analysts believe that northeast Brazilians' support for PT candidates (at the state and federal levels) largely results from their gratitude for the PT's monthly cash-grant, Bolsa Família. Indeed, some see this as evidence that northeasterners remain mired in "political clientelism," i.e., a propensity to sell their votes to the highest bidder. Why then did northeastern voters not transfer their support in 2022 to President Jair Bolsonaro (and his "New Right") after he increased their monthly federal stipend while replacing Bolsa Família with Auxílio Brasil? This question is further motivated by the alignment between the New Right's "cultural" conservatism and the traditional moral sensibilities of many northeasterners, especially in matters of sexual politics. In this talk, I try to explain northeasterners' electoral fidelity to the PT by uncovering the inner ethics of northeastern political culture. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in rural Piauí State (on and off since 2003), I explain the northeastern preference for the PT over Bolsonaro by illuminating certain agrarian values, such as presença (presence), força (vitality), and carinho (loving care), and then deriving from those values the folk model of political corruption that northeasters applied to national political figures. In this way, I explain northeasterners' differential regard for PT and New Right politics.
Communities across the world are currently facing two major and interconnected challenges – persistent and growing levels of inequality and significant environmental impacts from growing economic activity. The former challenge relates to a broad range of factors such as automation, the decline of labor unions, the financialization and globalization of the economy, deindustrialization in the U.S. and many OECD countries, and trade. However, the transformative roles of more recent forms of automation and digital technologies/artificial intelligence (AI) could dramatically intensify the role of capital in driving productivity, further undermining the ability of workers to maintain their foothold in the economy. In this seminar, Dr. Hall will explore these challenges and present an inclusive capitalism approach – based on Prof. Robert Ashford’s theory of binary economics – to creating shared-prosperity via investment in, and ownership of, more sustainable production and consumption systems.
03/16/2023
Zoom 7:00 PM
Field Station Bahia: The Making of an Ideal Field Work City
Livio Sansone, University of Bahia
04/20/2023
Zoom 7:00 PM
Indigenous Participation and Social Oversight (Controle Social) in the Subsystem of Health Care for Indigenous Peoples in Brazil: Twenty-three Years of research
Ester Jean Langdon, Federal University of Santa Catarina Abstract
Abstract
In 1990, the Brazilian Unified System of Health (Sistema Único de Saúde/SUS) institutionalized new relations between the State and society and created a series of opportunities for “controle social” or social oversight in all health care sectors. Recognizing the historical inequalities and inequities suffered by indigenous peoples, the Subsystem of Indian Health, established in 1999, was founded upon the same principle of controle social. New roles were created for the democratic exercise of indigenous participation in three border spaces of action and communication: Indigenous organizations as primary health providers; Indian Health Agents as members of health teams; and Indigenous representatives on health councils. During the first decade of the Subsystem, we conducted research on these spaces among Indigenous groups in southern Brazil and observed that Indigenous health workers and representatives exercised ambiguous and contradictory roles in a centralized and bureaucratized system. However, recent research that explores Indigenous activism in Mato Grosso do Sul during the pandemic of COVID-19 demonstrates that these new opportunities created by the State have contributed in a positive way to increased political action and negotiations with the state. In spite of the centralization and bureaucratization observed in our research during the first decade of the Subsystem, this recent research suggests that the two decades of experience in controle social prepared the Indigenous health workers and leaders to undertake effective action in order to protect their communities during the pandemic in the face of deliberate State inaction.
04/26/2023
Faculty House, Columbia University / Zoom 7:00 PM
From spirits to worshippers: Jewish themes in Kardecism, Umbanda and Candomblé, joint meeting with Studies in Religion and Contents and Methods in the Social Sciences
Alex Minkin, Federal University of Sergipe, Brazil Abstract
Abstract
Syncretic Brazilian religions are using some of historical Jewish characters, symbols, and Hermetic Qabalah to guide and explain the metaphysical experiences of practitioners. At the same time Jews integrate some of Brazilian mysticism into their religious lives while assimilating into Brazilian society. Several case studies based on my field research will be discussed.
First, I will analyze the history of the Jewish Kardecist center in Rio de Janeiro, referring to the interviews with its members. Next, I will discuss my field research of the descendants of Crypto-Jews in Fortaleza, who honor their heritage through ancestral rituals of Candomblé and Umbanda. The temples of these religions provide a safe space of coexistence where rare inter-religious dialogue between Judaism, African, Indigenous and Spiritist religions takes place, and offer Jews a unique therapeutic means to confront historical traumas of discrimination and religious intolerance. Finally, we will explore why non-Jewish Umbanda practitioners chose to embody Jewish spirits.
05/18/2023
Faculty House, Columbia University / Zoom 7:00 PM
Elusive Class Identifications among Brazil’s Once-Rising Poor: Ethnographic and Survey Data from Recife
This paper investigates the impact of the past two decades—one known for poverty reduction, the other for spiraling economic, political, and cultural crisis—on class identifications among Brazil’s “once rising poor,” that is, poor and working-class households who experienced socioeconomic mobility during the years of governance under the leftist Workers Party (PT). While this demographic sector had initially been celebrated as Brazil’s “new middle class,” this identificatory moniker lost whatever purchase it had with the economic contraction that set in around 2013. And yet, poverty reduction under the PT was inextricably tied to images of middle-classness, often glossed as the aspiration for a good job, one’s own house, and a college education. In my presentation, I share sections from a draft book manuscript which examine generational tensions and emergent political affect among once-rising poor families in the northeastern city of Recife, during the years leading up to the tumultuous 2018 elections. It is an ethnographic account of how a demographic cohort associated with economic ascent during the PT years responded to ensuing conditions of economic precarity, political dysfunction, and proclaimed moral crisis. The specific analysis I will present examines the subjective meanings of “middle class” for once-rising poor families in Recife, explored three ways: (a) quantitative survey data from 2016 (n=397); (b) qualitative semi-structured interviews from 2017-18 (n=37); and (c) an in-depth exploration of one extended family around whose narratives my book centers. From findings, I consider: What citizenship ethos was produced among Brazil’s once-rising poor? Did poverty reduction under the PT engender politically active and engaged citizens or, instead, render citizen subjectivity more individualistic, more consumerist and, ultimately, more neoliberal? I end with reflections on how the “meanings of middle class” for this demographic sector shed light on the 2018 election outcomes.
