Ethical procedures, ethics, and bureaucracy in a research experience with indigenous population

Abstract

Based on an experience that occurred during a doctoral research, this article aims to discuss the bureaucratic procedures of social research in Brazil and some of its practical implications. We raise some questions regarding location and the decision-making power granted (or not) to an indigenous individual or population, as well as reflections on the resolutions approved by the National Committee for Research Ethics, their applicability and the (in)adequacy of forms and models used in social research. The article focuses on ethical issues, analyzing operational flows from and among agencies responsible for regulating research carried out with indigenous populations. It also includes reflections on the trace left by the tutelary condition of indigenous people and how this condition continues to limit research guidelines. By sharing this experience, this article intends to incite debates on the ethical implications of situations in which neutrality is replaced by bonds, as well as to demystify the idea that simplifying overly bureaucratic procedures would be a threat to ethical principles.