Biopolitics and deterritorialization of indigenous and quilombola people

an analysis of legislative proposals that (re)define the norms for territorial recognition

Abstract

This manuscript analyzes legislative proposals that are being processed in the National Congress for the management of what ruralist deputies and senators classify as "risks to the country development" caused by demarcation of indigenous and quilombola territories. The objective is to understand how these legislative pieces could consolidate a certain conception of national interest and, consequently, how they could operationalize a project to regulate the lives of indigenous and quilombola peoples. The legislative proposals were obtained from the Chamber and Senate websites and were studied according to the theoretical refletions of Michel Foucault about biopolitical mechanisms. As a result, the study concluded that those legislative proposals are operated as biopolitical mechanisms for the deterritorialization of indigenous and quilombola peoples, because they focus on interests of liberating these territories from the conditions associated with the presence of these peoples, in order to enable the exploitation of agribusiness and mining.