Care and its Networks: Disease and Difference in Indigenous Health Institutions in SÃo paulo

Abstract

Care and humanization are intersecting words in Amerindian ethnology and, in distinct ways, in the Healthcare field. I attempt to establish partial connections between such fields as a way to make some issues related to my ethnographic experience at Casai (Casa de Apoio à Saúde Indígena), in São Paulo, visible. For many indigenous people, this space crossed by differences intensifies the vulnerability and transformational effects inherent to illness. Being under the care of non-indigenous people is a convergence point between individuals from different peoples who come to São Paulo for biomedical treatment. Being a target of care implies being under the eyes - and, therefore, the consideration or intervention - of others, but also implies in making yourself visible to them, mobilizing them in specific ways. This article focuses on some care relationships in which indigenous patients and health professionals are actively, and differentially, involved.