Disrupting the Colonial Subjectivity Imposed by Borders: The Experience of the Guarani People in Brazil

Sarmet, Gabriela

Abstract

This paper aims to show how the imposed demarcation of borders by the Brazilian State has contributed to the establishment of other frontiers - not only physical but also epistemic and symbolic ones - against indigenous peoples. This practice has artificially constructed colonial subjectivities, whose representation has been dragged on since the colonial period, having been reinforced amidst the corporate-military dictatorship (1964-1985), and today is materialised in the anti-indigenous government of Jair Bolsonaro. Above all, this research shows how the Guarani cosmology - i.e., world narrative - has been reformulated due to the multiple forms of violence committed against their people. This has resulted in alternative territorialisation strategies that disrupt these colonial subjectivities in the form of migratory movements and the repossession of ancestral territories, their Tekohas.

Citation

Sarmet, G. (2022). Disrupting the Colonial Subjectivity Imposed by Borders: The Experience of the Guarani People in Brazil. SOAS journal of postgraduate research, 14(2020-2021), 52-69. https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00037053

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2022
• Deposit Date: Apr 12, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 12, 2022
• Journal: SOAS journal of postgraduate research
• Print ISSN: 2631-3812
• Electronic ISSN: 2517-6226
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 2020-2021
• Pages: 52-69
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00037053
• Keywords: Borders, Colonial, Subjectivity, Guarani, Brazil
• Publisher URL: https://www.soas.ac.uk/research/soas-journals-and-books/soas-journal-postgraduate-research