The indians accept death as a normal, natural event: institutional authority, cultural reasoning and discourses of genocide in a Venezuelan cholera epidemic
Social Identities
; 3(3): 439-69, Oct. 1997.
Article
em En
| HISA
| ID: his-8374
Biblioteca responsável:
BR1273.1
Localização: BR1273.1
ABSTRACT
A cholera epidemic killed some 500 people in a fluvial region in eastern Venezuela. Most of the 'victims' were classified as 'Warao', that is, members of an 'indigenous ethnic group'. In combatting the threat to the legitimacy of public health institutions posed by alarmingly high rates of mortality, officials racialised the disease 'Warao cultural practices' were depicted as the cause of the cholera outbreak. Genocide rhetoric provided members of the affected population with a means of countering stigmatising images, regaining a sense of agency, and calling attention to the conditions in which they were living. By virtue of its monopoly over official (especially statistical) representations of the cholera outbreak, the state was largely successful in suppressing narratives that charged it with genocide. Implications of withholding access to genocide discourse in such settings are explored.(AU)
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Coleções:
05-specialized
Base de dados:
HISA
Assunto principal:
Etnicidade
/
Cólera
/
Política de Saúde
País/Região como assunto:
America do sul
/
Venezuela
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Social Identities
Ano de publicação:
1997
Tipo de documento:
Article