The Genocide of the Indigenous Population in Contemporary Brazil

The article proposes a critical analysis of the prevailing legal definition of the crime of genocide based on the restrictive technical standard adopted by International Law after 1945, resulting from the consideration of the Holocaust as a restrictive reference for the comprehension of the dynamics that led to genocide. Considering contemporary sociological, anthropological and legal views, but also rescuing the classic view of Raphael Lemkin, author of the term “genocide” (1944), new perspectives are proposed which, given the multicultural cosmological references prevailing in non-European cultures, would better serve the protection of human rights and citizenship of minorities victimized by processes of structural extermination, especially the indigenous cultures. Based on Carl Schmitt, Pedro Estevam Serrano and Giorgio Agamben’s reflections, the article identifies exception scenarios in democratic societies that normally precede genocidal structural processes, an essential factor for constructing effectively democratic societies geared to full citizenship

Biology · Criminology · Ethnology · Genocide · Geography · Indigenous · Political science · Population · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Cambodian History and Society · Demography · Indigenous Studies in Latin America · Law · Ecology