"Bodies in contact"

subordination, resistance, and the Indigenous Protection Service at the 2nd Regional Inspectorate (IR 2)

Abstract

This article analyzes the relationship established between the Indian Protection Service (SPI) and the indigenous populations, in the 2nd Regional Inspectorate of the State of Pará (IR2), regarding the medical and sanitary measures, considering in what proportions these subjects built agencies and resistances in the production of bodies and conceptions of health and disease. Through inspection reports, cards, crafts, medical reports, forensic examinations, and the diverse narratives available at the SPI digital collection, and field experiences  it was possible to understand that in the 20th century, health policies that began in the Brazilian Republic had a long process of State formation and the national identity. Thus, through a complex network of military actions, scientific and hygienist, their indigenous bodies; “guarded”, “silenced”, “submitted”, moved between exchanges, conflicts, negotiations, reframings and, mainly, as a link of the agency played by the indigenous people in which are agents of articulations between its socio-economic system and the Western medical health system.