Mass Death and Disappearance in Contemporary Necropolitical Democracies: Brazilian and Mexican cases

Abstract Based on ethnographic research in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Sonora, Mexico, we analyze mass deaths and disappearances under (formally) democratic regimes. A comparison by contrast reveals the similarities and differences between these two places. We establish a dialogue with the structural perspective of necropolitics and studies of victims’ experiences in different national contexts. We seek to link the notion of the necropolitical environment with analysis of practices of valorization of human life. To do so, we start by analyzing the experiences of people whose lives, as well as those of their families, are socially devalued (valuation studies). The concept of maternal body emerges from this analysis, enabling us to understand the dynamics of friction between the necropolitical environment and the emergence of possible forms of life, defined on the basis of inter-corporeal links between the families and their dead or disappeared loved ones.

摘要 本研究基于巴西里约热内卢州与墨西哥索诺拉州的民族志调研，对（形式上的）民主政权治下的大规模死亡与失踪事件展开分析。通过对比分析，本研究揭示了两地在该议题上的异同之处。本研究与死亡政治（necropolitics）的结构视角，以及不同国家语境下的受害者经历研究展开学术对话，旨在将死亡政治环境（necropolitical environment）的概念与人类生命价值化实践的分析相结合。为此，本研究首先剖析那些自身与家庭生活均遭到社会价值贬抑的群体的经历（价值研究（valuation studies））。本研究从该分析中提炼出"母性身体"这一核心概念，借此得以阐释死亡政治环境与可能的生命形态涌现之间的动态摩擦关系——此类生命形态基于遇难者家庭与逝去或失踪挚爱之间的身体间联结而得以界定。