Paper short abstract:

How to guide students to anthropology when Brazil is governed by political forces that discredit it? We reflect on this through experiences in a program that prepares teachers for the Brazilian high school, where we teach focusing at what Segato defines as an ethical impulse of anthropology.

Paper long abstract:

Few countries combine socioeconomic inequalities and cultural differences as intensively as Brazil. At the same time that it houses more than 200 Amerindian ethnicities, different rural communities, descendants of enslaved, and a profusion of urban identities, its population is cleaved by an immense disparity in material conditions and opportunities for decent life. Recently, this duality was further aggravated by the growth of social support of far-right forces that culminated in its victory in the 2018 presidential elections. How to teach anthropology in this context? If Brazilian history, society and culture alone are already a major challenge to anthropology, the rise of far-right forces tensions the situation to paroxysm. How to guide students to the anthropological perspective at a time when the country is governed by political forces that discredit it? We reflect ethnographically on these questions through experiences in a postgraduate program that prepares teachers for the Brazilian high school, where we teach focusing at what Argentine anthropologist Rita Segato defines as an ethical impulse of anthropology. She suggests that, by recognizing the demands of different communities, the anthropologist can generate an expansion of human rights through an ethical awareness of social and cultural differences. For Segato, anthropology can serve as a sort of ethics teacher for legal regulations. We conclude by arguing that teaching anthropology should embrace this ethical criticism as one of its tasks. This practice can be performed using the anthropological knowledge and methods not only to present "the view from afar", but also to deepen citizenship.