Composing bodies with the COVID-19 vaccine: the cosmopolitics of health among Guarani peoples
By Maria Paula Prates
Download- Date
- 19 Dec 2023
- Publisher
- Journal of the British Academy
- Digital Object Identifier
- https://doi.org/10.5871/jba/011s6.013
- Number of pages
- 18
Abstract: In this article, I focus on Guarani Indigenous peoples’ modalities of relating to, trusting, and distrusting the Brazilian Public Health System (SUS) and its agents during the Covid-19 pandemic. I compare relational configurations as a means to understand the reasons for a low take-up of Covid-19 vaccines among Kaiowá collectives in the first moment yet a high rate of vaccination among the Mbyá. I also discuss conceptions of health and the body in light of a guiding framework that aims to reflect on epidemiological protocols that sometimes are disconnected from the Indigenous dynamics and end up clashing counterproductively with their care technologies.
Keywords: COVID-19 vaccination, Indigenous peoples, bodies, trust
Article posted to the Journal of the British Academy, volume 11, supplementary issue 6 (Exploring Medical Mistrust: From Clinic to Community)