Antropology, law and interdisciplinarity: Methodological challenges of an ethnography about practices of the public prosecution office

Abstract

The goal of this article is to present a reflection on the methodological challenges of a qualitative, interdisciplinary and ethnographic research in the field of the Public Prosecution Office practices. From an anthropological perspective, far from stereotypes and homogeneities, the authors aim to demonstrate how the technical procedures of ethnography (participant observation, field diary, non-directive interviews, documentary analysis, etc.) were able to capture fragments, sensibilities and humanities that were invisible within the judicial processes and public spaces of a District Attorney's Office. In this sense, the "individuals", victims of rights violations and anonymous within the processes, assume the status of "people", in Marcel Mauss' anthropological sense, bringing to the surface their dramas, pilgrimages and suspicions about the Brazilian Justice System. Thus, when they describe which methodological paths they went through during the research and how they were important for the production of interdisciplinary knowledge, the authors intend to reaffirm the relevance of the method for social research and for future studies in the field of legal practices.