“El derecho de vivir en paz”: citizen anthropology actions in contexts of disputes between development projects

Abstract

In this article, we will approach our citizenship practices in two ethnographic situations, demarcated by the debates on the privatization and deprivation of fragile Brazilian (agro)ecosystems, from the perspective of the commodification of life. In the first situation, actions with researchers and traditional and local populations in the process of elaborating counter-narratives to heavy metal mining megaprojects in the Brazilian Pampa will be addressed. In the second ethnographic field, we critically analyze the encounter between institutional researchers from different areas of knowledge and organizations of indigenous and traditional peoples, in the context of narratives and disputes over access to plant genetic resources in Brazil. From these ethnographies, we propose to reflect on how such experiences teach us about doing anthropology as a scientific action on demand and motivated by citizen practice. We conclude that both ethnographic situations indicate the importance of a constant evaluation of our practices within the tangle of lines that involve the struggle for the expansion of the rights to “coexist well”.