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Toward a Broader View of Health in the Anthropocene - The COVID-19 Syndemic and the Clash of Cosmographies in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

Raquel Dias-Scopel, Daniel Scopel & Esther Jean Langdon
In Mato Grosso do Sul, COVID-19 brought a substantial increase in the disease burden of Indigenous people, in a context where maternal and child health, nutritional and parasitic diseases, were already higher than in the non-Indigenous population. The synergistic interaction between the SARS-CoV-2 virus, other pathogens, and biosocial factors resulted in what Singer (2010) terms ‘syndemics’. Efforts by Indigenous Peoples to address the pandemic reveal ‘a clash’ between Indigenous and Colonial cosmographies with regard to notions of the body and health.
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Raquel Dias-Scopel is Senior Researcher in Public Health at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation/Mato Grosso do Sul, and holds a doctorate in social anthropology from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. She has conducted research among Indigenous Peoples in Southern and Central-Western regions of Brazil as well as in the State of Amazonas. She coordinates research in medical anthropology and public health policy for Indigenous Peoples. Her primary research interests are medical pluralism, health/disease/attention-prevention processes, sustainability and social participation.
Daniel Scopel is a researcher associated with the National Institute of Research: Brazil Plural, and holds a doctorate in Social Anthropology from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. He participated as a post-doctoral investigator in the COVID-19 Humanities Network Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), in 2021. He has held a research grant from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation/Mato Grosso do Sul since 2022.
Esther Jean Langdon is a CNPq researcher and Coordinator of the National Institute of Research: Brazil Plural – IBP (CNPq/INCT), as well as co-coordinator of IBP’s research network Health, Local Practices, Experience and Public Policy. She holds a doctorate from Tulane University and retired as a full professor from the Federal University of Santa Catarina in 2014 and remains active as advisor and voluntary professor. Her articles and books on shamanism, anthropology of health, oral literature, and performance are published throughout the Americas and Europe.

Learning points

  • What does the concept of “indigenous cosmography” coined by Dias-Scopel and col. add to the debate about the colonial invasion and its legacy in the Americas?
  • The concept of ‘cosmology’ in anthropology deals with the universe of beliefs and otherness existing in the social context, whether human or non-human. The article works preferably with the notion of ‘cosmography’ and adds a layer to that notion because it brings cosmology into the territory. Why is this discussion fundamental in the situation of genocide faced by Latin American indigenous peoples since the colonial invasion?
  • When the SARS-CoV-2 virus struck in Brazil, Indigenous populations were already living in circumstances of environmental degradation, food insecurity, racism, and structural violence. The outbreak added to the already severe disease burden. In addition, its impact was enhanced by the Brazilian Federal government’s disastrous policy and mismanagement of the sanitary crisis. Can you mention three actions by the Bolsonaro government against Brazil’s indigenous peoples?

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