The Yanomami tragedy, covid-19 and the social determination of health

Abstract

Covid-19 in Brazil brought to light the perversity of drama of Yanomami people abandonment. Seriously affected by pandemic, they suffer from the neglect of Public Power and the development of an economic and political logic that privileges the depredation of nature and cultural diversity and loss of rights of ancestral people. This theoretical essay presented a reading of the Yanomami issue in the light of the critical theory of social determination in health. Concepts of culture and racism are worked in this thematic context. Emphasis is placed on the theorization of Jaime Breilh and his important epistemological reflection on a “dialectic of the social determination of health”, which values ​​and understands the complexity and movement of social relationship of health. Decolonial thinking is added as a contribution to knowledge in collective health. Neoliberal capitalist system perpetuates colonialities and violent subalternization in long time contexts where original people resist and fight.