In this paper, drawing on literature from both STS and the anthropology
of kinship, we describe a political movement aimed at legal reparation for
human rights violations perpetrated by the Brazilian government against
children of the compulsorily institutionalized patients of Hansen’s disease.
We conduct our investigation by exploring the action of intertwining
technologies – narrated recollections, written documents, and the DNA
test – employed by major actors to “reckon” the family connections at the
core of this drama. The notion of technologies helps underline not only the
materiality of certain processes, but also the complex temporalities at play.
Responding to a challenge proposed by Janet Carsten, our ultimate aim is to
show how political events as well as collective institutionalized structures
– operating through the mediation of these diverse technologies – produce
a particular kind of sociality, interwoven with perceptions of family and community.
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Author Name: Claudia Fonseca
URL: View PDF
Keywords: kinship, temporality, human rights, DNA, Hansen’s disease
ISSN: 1809-4341
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