"It is better to be safe, for we are invisible to Brazilian state: traditional Sateré-Mawé practices as a protection strategy

Abstract

This article, written by a Sateré-Mawé researcher and a non-indigenous anthropologist, lists traditional avoidance and retreat save practices from the Sateré-Mawé, considering their notions of body, health and disease. Some critical historical moments in which the Mawé people had to retreat and how those traditional save practices can teach protection strategies against coronavirus nowadays, as once more the actions of the Brazilian state put indigenous peoples in risk in face of a new genocide menace. Some emerging conflicts during the pandemics are mentioned, in order to give context to the struggles of the Sateré-Mawé during the pandemic.