Our dead and disappeared: Reflections on the construction of the notion of political disappearance in Brazil

Abstract

Based on ethnographic and documentary material, this article analyzes the social construction of political disappearance in Brazil. It argues that less than a phenomenon to be captured from reality, it is a category produced in and a producer of a social field, a point of convergence of debates and actions of actors and institutions. The objective is to show the discourses that function as truths about the phenomenon in Brazil, as well as the methods, procedures, forums and disputes by which they are sanctioned as such. It also addresses the intrinsic relation of this process with the production of political communities by focusing on the discourse of the movement of families of the killed and disappeared political actors. In conclusion, it points to some social implications that result from delimiting what is politically relevant violence.