Mass Death and Disappearance in Contemporary Necropolitical Democracies: Brazilian and Mexican cases

Abstract

Based on ethnographic research in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Sonora, Mexico, we analyze mass deaths and disappearances under (formally) democratic regimes. A comparison by contrast reveals the similarities and differences between these two places. We establish a dialogue with the structural perspective of necropolitics and studies of victims’ experiences in different national contexts. We seek to link the notion of the necropolitical environment with analysis of practices of valorization of human life. To do so, we start by analyzing the experiences of people whose lives, as well as those of their families, are socially devalued (valuation studies). The concept of maternal body emerges from this analysis, enabling us to understand the dynamics of friction between the necropolitical environment and the emergence of possible forms of life, defined on the basis of inter-corporeal links between the families and their dead or disappeared loved ones.