“Integrated Indian” and “Acculturated Indian”: The use of these criminalization's patterns of indigenous leaders by the Brazilian judiciary

Abstract The criminalization of indigenous leaders occurs in many countries where these populations live. The practice, recurrently used by national States, serves to inhibit or prevent indigenous peoples from demonstrating and protesting in favor of their rights. On the initiative of the Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil (APIB) and Indigenous Peoples Rights International (IPRI), the authors carried out a study on the criminalization of indigenous leaders in Brazil in 2020 and identified important formal aspects of this criminalization. Among them is the mistaken use of the categories “integrated indian” and “acculturated indian”. The present article proposes to deepen this aspect, by updating the discussions of its use in the configuration on the culpability of indigenous peoples in the current Brazilian criminal justice system, and by investigating in greater detail and intensity the meaning and application these categories by the judiciary. Unveiling a judicial behavior centered on jurisprudential analysis, we seek to highlight the judicial mentality that perpetuates the indiscriminate and discriminatory use of these categories as a maneuver to hyperpunitivism against indigenous people. As for the methodology, of a quanti-qualitative nature, the research uses a bibliographic review, a survey of jurisprudence and case studies, not excluding the material collected in interviews with indigenous leaders.