"Está no sangue": a articulação de ideias sobre "raça", aparência e ancestralidade entre famílias de portadores de doença falciforme em Salvador, Bahia

Abstract

The anthropological discussion on "race" and "racial" classification in Brazil has been recently renewed in the context of the debates regarding the implementation of affirmative action policies. Through the analysis of a case study of the ideas that sickle-cell disease patients and their relatives in the city of Salvador, Bahia, have regarding "race", appearance and ancestry, this paper aims to understand the impact that affirmative action policies have in the everyday understanding of these categories. We draw attention to the interfaces between new discourses and previous notions, emphasizing the need to take the anthropological debate beyond the existence of a system of "racial" classification in Brazil, be it multiple or bipolar. Thus, we argue that to understand the complex and contradictory ideas about "race", appearance and ancestry, it is more appropriate to refer to the circulation of discourses about these issues, pointing to the State's role as one of the channels through which these discourses are disseminated.