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Anthropology and Human Rights: Between Silence and Voice
Author(s) -
Pereira Pedro Paulo Gomes
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
anthropology and humanism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.153
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1548-1409
pISSN - 1559-9167
DOI - 10.1111/j.1548-1409.2008.00004.x
Subject(s) - silence , ethnography , institution , residence , human rights , dilemma , sociology , anthropology , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , gender studies , criminology , political science , law , social science , art , aesthetics , medicine , philosophy , demography , epistemology , family medicine
SUMMARY This text deals with ethnographic research carried out for two years at Fraternidade Assistencial Lucas Evangelista (FALE), an institution that provides residence to 200 people diagnosed with HIV. At this institution, located on the outskirts of Brasilia, Brazil, ex‐convicts, ex‐prostitutes, abandoned children, transvestites, drug addicts, alcoholics, and those expelled from their homes by parents and relatives live together in a situation of confinement and terror. This text explores some of the possibilities and difficulties of anthropology at the forefront of the Human Rights debate. In particular, it emphasizes the dilemma of silence and voice—remaining silent or speaking out—for both anthropologists and their interlocutors.