Genealogical ethnography of mortifications of dissident bodies in the south of Mato Grosso do Sul (Brazil)

Abstract

Located in the Brazilian Center-West region, the State of Mato Grosso do Sul has long been one of the epicenters of necrobiopolitics in the country. Black people, indigenous peoples, LGBTQIAPN+ populations, children, in other words, dissident bodies are clear targets of the carnage in Mato Grosso do Sul. The city of Dourados, located in the southern portion of the State, is one of the most successful cases of implementing death policies in the country, to the detriment of minority communities, especially when analyzing aspects of the creation of the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, of “Nova Dourados”, as well as the Kaiowá, Guarani and Terena indigenous “confinement” reserves invented in the midst of much violence in the southern region of the hitherto state of Mato Grosso. In this context, based on ethnographic methodology, inspired by Michel Foucault and the re-readings of his works from black intellectuals and monographs with which we dialogue, we seek to confront history based on the linearity of time, more specifically with the genealogy tool of power, bringing to the surface the (dis)continuities of state devices, with emphasis on understanding aspects of the urbanization of the city of Dourados in Mato Grosso do Sul. Finally, it is concluded that the (dis)continuities of the State’s devices may be capable of triggering subjections to abject existences that resist the statements of developmentalism and progress in the city of Dourados, in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul.