Indigenous Perspectives in International Relations Theory

a survey of the academic papers published in the Proceedings of the National Meetings of the Brazilian Association of International Relations (2011-2021)

Abstract

The present article aims to identify the presence of the theoretical approach of Indigenous Perspectives in academic works published in the thematic area of Theory of International Relations in the proceedings of the National Meetings of the Brazilian Association of International Relations (ENABRI-ABRI) that took place between 2011 and 2021. In the field of International Relations, Indigenous Perspectives are situated among the critical approaches to the traditional positivist theoretical body, offering different views on the political and legal order, in addition to questioning the State-centrism in the ontological core of the discipline. It is considered that indigenous populations offer a transforming potential for International Relations theories, since they manifest their own knowledge about the intricate relationships between human beings and the world, seeing the international environment through their criteria of interdependence with natural and social aspects of human life. Considering that since it was founded in 2005, ABRI consolidates the main advances of academic-scientific production in the IR field in the country, this paper seeks to answer the following question: are Indigenous Perspectives present in the academic works presented in ABRI's Theory of International Relations thematic area? As for the research methodology, the sequential mixed approach (qualitative-quantitative) was used for exploratory purposes. By consulting bibliographic sources, specifically the proceedings of ABRI’s events, a quantitative survey was carried out based on search terms: indigenous, indigenous perspectives and their correspondence in the languages ​​accepted at the event. Through the reading of the published papers’s abstracts it was possible to qualify them as to the proposal of the Indigenous Perspectives. It is concluded that, in the largest Brazilian academic event of International Relations, the insertion of indigenous issues is still incipient. From search terms, in the thematic area of ​​Theory, ten (10) works were identified. Of this total, while one of them is aligned with the proposal to seek differentiated views, the most significant portion focuses on denouncing the gap in indigenous contributions to the field. It is noteworthy that at the event held in 2021, a greater number of works were located, suggesting a potential increase in discussions of this approach in the coming years.