Bio-anthropophagy, or the Anthropocene in the Making: the Caboclo Peoples in the Construction of Modern Brazil (1889-1939)

Abstract

This article analyses the historical trajectory of a southern Brazilian population emerging from the interbreeding of Amerindian, African and European peoples: the so-called caboclos. In particular, it focuses on their relationship with Brazilian institutions in the nation-building and modernisation processes between 1889 and 1945. Although caboclos constituted a considerable portion of the population of southern Brazil, because of their lifestyle, they were generally regarded as incapable of participating in the national developmental effort. As a result, they were forcefully assimilated through ethnic interbreeding and sanitation reforms. Reconstructing this historical process, this article adopts the term 'bio-anthropophagy', a concept describing the combination of anthropological and biological practices of persecution and appropriation in the region. First, it looks at the impact of racial theories promoted by national institutions during the nineteenth century that led to ethnic persecutions and forced interbreeding of caboclos. Second, it addresses the role played by the combination of eugenic theories and sanitation policies since the 1920s, leading to significant techno-environmental reforms in the region. While the combination of these bio-anthropophagic reforms progressively dismantled the caboclo way of life and their ecosystems, some of their environmental practices and values resurfaced in recent times with the emergence of environmentalism and agroecology in the region.