Disease and diet in the construction of otherness between the soldiers of the Brazilian Imperial Army during the War of the Farrapos (original) (raw)
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Cadernos do LEPAARQ (UFPEL)
This article aims to analyze the case of genocide of the Xavante in Marãiwatsédé, MT by the Brazilian State during the Military Dictatorship (1964-1985) as a historical example of the scientific limits, deficiencies, and absence of public policies that, together with the dissemination of biased information, constitute the greatest obstacle to fight major epidemics, which leads to one of the greatest human rights violations, the right to life. We intend to bring a historical perspective to demonstrate that the implications and consequences of the contact between the indigenous people and non-indigenous groups since the colonization times, and mainly during the Dictatorship in Brazil, have been catastrophic to their culture, customs, territories, health and even their right to life. Academic research projects with an archaeological approach, for instance, including an active participation of indigenous collaborators, will reveal and promote a better understanding of the impact of the contact and will also enable to reconstruct and preserve their history, culture, memory, and identity, contributing to meet their current needs and claim their rights. Resumo: O caso de genocídio dos Xavante de Marãiwatsédé, MT, por parte do Estado brasileiro durante a Ditadura Militar (1964-1985), é analisado nesse artigo como exemplo histórico dos limites científicos, deficiências e ausência de políticas públicas que, em conjunto com a disseminação de informações enviesadas, configuram o maior entrave para se combater grandes epidemias, o que leva a uma das maiores violações de Direitos Humanos, o direito à vida. Pretendemos trazer uma perspectiva de reflexão histórica para demonstrar que as implicações e consequências do contato entre as populações indígenas e não indígenas desde a época da colonização, e principalmente durante a Ditadura no Brasil, foram catastróficas para sua cultura, costumes, territórios, saúde e até o direito à vida. Projetos de pesquisa acadêmica, com abordagem arqueológica, por exemplo, incluindo a participação ativa de colaboradores indígenas, irão revelar e promover uma melhor compreensão do impacto do contato e também permitirão reconstruir e preservar sua história, cultura, memória e identidade, contribuindo para suprir suas necessidades atuais e reivindicar seus direitos.
When the Brazilian Expeditionary Force arrived in Italy to fight alongside the Allies in WWII, its members were introduced to the racially segregated US Army. Based on memoirs, published oral testimonies, newspapers, and comics, this paper explores the ways in which Brazilians of all walks of life—rather than ideology-producing elites—projected their own perceptions on race relations and what it meant racially to be a Brazilian. Their representations, however, were not uniform. Rather, they offered an array of alternative racial national identities varying from whole-white troops to zealous support of their " Racial Democracy. " Civil rights activists in the United States used these images to condemn their domestic racial segregation while some Brazilians criticized the Brazilian army's hypocrisy and racism.
Revista História, Ciência e Saúde, Manguinhos, 2015
When the fleet of the West Indian Company arrived at the coast of Pernambuco in January 1630, officials from the invading army expected to quickly capture the Portuguese positions without meeting much resistance. Initially at least, this held true. The city of Olinda which was the capital of the Pernambuco captaincy fell after barely a day’s fighting and its port, Recife, was overcome in just a few days. Having partially overcome their Portuguese enemy, the Company’s commanders now had to deal with a more deadly and persistent opponent, namely the innumerous diseases which affected the army and led to a high percentage of losses ever since the invasion and conquest of the territory, between 1630 and 1637, until the end of the Dutch occupation of Brazil in 1654. The article ‘“Sick and unable to march”: life and death in the army of the Dutch West India Company in the Northeast of Brazil, 1630 – 1654’, published in the Journal ‘História, Ciências e Saúde – Manguinhos’ (V.22, N.2 Apr-Jun.2015) is an in-depth piece of research that was financed by CAPES (‘Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior’ or the Coordination of Training for People in Tertiary Education). The author carried out the research in the Netherlands between 2007 and 2011, and published the results in the book ‘Gente de Guerra: origem, cotidiano e resistência dos soldados do exército da Companhia das Índias Ocidentais no Brasil (1630-1654)’ published by Edufpe in 2014 (‘People of War: the origins, daily lives and resistance of soldiers from the West Indian Company in Brazil, 1630-1654). As well as advancing research on the Dutch presence in Brazil, the author showed how various illnesses impacted upon soldiers’ lives and hindered actions of the Company’s army. He also sought to gather information about the principle diseases that spread amongst the troops and their causes. For Bruno Romero Ferreira Miranda, professor at the Rural Federal University of Pernambuco, the risky service of war in Brazil seemed, in certain moments, to have been less harmful to the military of the West Indian company than the various maladies that plagued them during the years of occupation.
THE OLIVE GREEN ICEBERG: A STUDY OF THE CULTURAL ELEMENTS OF THE BRAZILIAN ARMY, ACCORDING TO THE THEORY OF EDGAR SCHEIN (Atena Editora), 2022
The Brazilian Army is an institution of great prestige in Brazilian society, having actively participated in the remarkable events of national history. Therefore, interest in the cultural issues of this organization is aroused. In order to shed light on the subject, a qualitative study was carried out, based on document analysis, which provided the identification of the main aspects that contributed to the formation and consolidation of the institution's culture, as well as the historical nuances that guided the process. As a result, it was possible to identify the elements of the military culture of the Land Force and the way they were coined throughout history through a series of symbolic devices, intentionally inserted in this social group.
Cadernos Lepaarq, 2021
This article aims to analyze the case of genocide of the Xavante in Marãiwatsédé, MT by the Brazilian State during the Military Dictatorship (1964-1985) as a historical example of the scientific limits, deficiencies, and absence of public policies that, together with the dissemination of biased information, constitute the greatest obstacle to fight major epidemics, which leads to one of the greatest human rights violations, the right to life. We intend to bring a historical perspective to demonstrate that the implications and consequences of the contact between the indigenous people and non-indigenous groups since the colonization times, and mainly during the Dictatorship in Brazil, have been catastrophic to their culture, customs, territories, health and even their right to life. Academic research projects with an archaeological approach, for instance, including an active participation of indigenous collaborators, will reveal and promote a better understanding of the impact of the contact and will also enable to reconstruct and preserve their history, culture, memory, and identity, contributing to meet their current needs and claim their rights.
This article investigates regional biotypological studies and the construction of biological deterministic discourses about the Brazilian identity in the 1930s. Biotypological research was undertaken to determine the normal body type of the Brazilian man, using its peculiar classificatory lexicon. Studies into the bodily profile of specific regions, like the northeast and São Paulo state, featured in this research. In the context of the contemporary debates about race, miscegenation, and national identity, these investigations were geared towards biological determinism and the influence of the environment and social and cultural aspects on the bodily development of Brazilians. It is shown how regional biotypological studies echoed racial, normalizing, exclusive viewpoints and contributed to the construction of a miscegenated Brazilian bodily identity.
The possibility that the climate altered the temperament of people who were not native to a given region was a widely held belief even before the discovery of the Americas. Changes in air, temperature, and diet were believed to contribute decisively to whether races degenerated or flourished. In the New World, the black, European, and indigenous races mixed, reconfiguring European diseases. I explore how historian Robert Southey viewed this mixture of races in a positive light, especially the mixture of indigenous and Portuguese blood, resulting in the mameluco. The mamelucos from São Paulo are presented in Southey’s History of Brazil as inheriting the Portuguese enterprising spirit with the tireless nature of the indigenous people.
In Brazil in the 1930s, biotypology was a foundational doctrine for national medicine. Proposing a holistic view of the organism, biotypology was embraced as a medical science that could overcome approaches focused on illness rather than on the sick person. Among its various meanings, biotypology was described as 'the science of the individual'. Its main scientific practices consisted of morphological, physiological and psychological evaluations that were determined through calculations and statistics. Biotypological studies operated beyond the realm of medical practice, informing eugenic, racial and national identity debates in Brazil. Biotypologists created systems for the bodily classification of Brazilians, established patterns of normality, and characterised individuals in biological terms. Yet biotypology also emphasized bodily norms derived from studying the collective to analyse the health of individuals in doctors' clinical practice. In the context of Brazilian participation in the Second World War, the country's president, Get ulio Vargas created in 1942 a special agency, the Coordinator of Economic Mobilization, to coordinate the Brazilian wartime economy. In step with the US government , one of its political and economic acts was to increase rubber production in the Amazon to meet the needs of the Allies during the war. Thousands of men from the Northeast of Brazil were recruited by the federal government to further agricultural colo-nisation of the region and to serve as a workforce in the rubber plantations (the 'serin-gal'). These 'rubber soldiers', as they became known, were selected by the Service for the Mobilization of Workers to the Amazon (SEMTA was the acronym in Portuguese), a unit that carried out medical examinations to evaluate the workers' physical, moral and health conditions. The evaluation was supposed to classify them as fit, unfit or recoverable for the job, and involved procedures to establish the racial and bodily type of each worker. Biotypology was thus one of the main medical and scientific grounds mobilised in this government initiative of worker recruitment. Biotypological examinations were done by morphological measurements 'following the Brazilian School of classification'. 1 The Gomes has a PhD in History and is a professor of the history of science in the Department of History at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil. Her main research interests are the history of bio-medical sciences, especially physiology and biotypology, and the history of human biological diversity and medicine. 1 Instruc¸~ oes para o preenchimento uniforme das fichas m edicas. Arquivo Nacional, Fundo Paulo Assis Ribeiro, caixa 5, doc.57, no page number.