From the time of rights to the time of intolerance. The neoconservative movement and the impact of the bolsonaro government: Challenges for Brazilian anthropology

Abstract

The present article discusses the recent neo-conservative movement in Brazil led by the Agribusiness and Evangelical Congressional Caucuses. Both fronts built and consolidated a confluence of objectives and political linkages in the National Congress to confront access to human rights. Neoconservative narratives centered on the “moral agenda” and based on the manipulation of Christian religious values have grown in Brazil’s public scene, countering concepts of gender equality, sexual diversity and reproductive rights. At the same time, an agenda of “legal certainty”, based on the interests of agribusiness, has dismantled environmental protection policies and blocked indigenous and quilombola rights to access land. This movement promotes the delegitimization of anthropological knowledge and of the sciences in general, while undermining the fundamental rights referenced by the Brazilian constitution. With the inauguration of a neoconservative government, intolerance has grown. As Bauman warns, one of the conditions of the dehumanization of the “Other” is authorization by government practices. The challenges facing Brazilian anthropology have increased dramatically in this scenario.