Anthropology, science and politics: forensic situation and ethnology indigenous in the Amazon and in the North East

Abstract

The public debate around the demarcation of indigenous lands raised a level of academic quality that allowed the anthropologist to contribute with his professional competence, exercising his social responsibility. The anthropology can contribute to the formation and improvement of the public sphere, affirming its academic competence and quality, as in the case of reports, whose political strength and scientific foundation are intertwined. I intend to address the relationship between anthropological theory and method and the elaboration of reports, from my experience as anthropologist-coordinator of teams for the identification of indigenous lands in the Northeast (in the state of Paraíba) and in the Amazon (in the Middle Rio Negro).