Tracing identities through interconnections: the biological body, intersubjective experiences and narratives of suffering

The 1987 radioactive disaster in Goiânia - a 'critical event' - revealed the formation of new identities in opposition to the notion of radioacidentados (radiation victims), a classification established by the system of nuclear expertise and defined exclusively by the person's absorption of high-level doses of radiation. In the search to give meaning to their illness and suffering, new social subjects have emerged and elaborated new interpretations concerning the materiality of contaminated bodies. In narrating their subjective experiences, they situate their identities as victims in relation to the embodied experience of the contaminated site and the attribution of new meanings to certain objects associated with the disaster itself and nuclear technology in general. The text focuses on this articulation between the biological body, narratives, memory, 'things' and the constitution of social identities. It provides a historical analysis, supported by a multivocal ethnography of the Cesium-137 disaster.

1987年发生于戈亚尼亚（Goiânia）的放射性灾害——一场"临界事故（critical event）"——揭示了一类新型身份认同的形成，该身份认同与"辐射受害者（radioacidentados）"的概念相悖。"辐射受害者"这一分类由核专家体系确立，仅以个体吸收高剂量辐射作为唯一判定依据。在为自身病痛与苦难赋予意义的过程中，新型社会主体应运而生，并围绕受污染躯体的物质性展开了全新的解读。在叙述自身主观体验时，他们将自身的受害者身份，与受污染场所的具身体验，以及与此次灾害乃至整体核技术相关的特定物品的意义重构建立起联结。本研究聚焦于生物躯体、叙事、记忆、"物"与社会身份建构之间的这种关联，并依托针对铯-137（Cesium-137）灾害的多声部民族志研究，展开历史分析。