Immemorial vs Traditional: Temporal Disputes over Indigenous Land Rights in Brazil (1987-2023)
Abstract
This lecture addresses the public controversy in Brazil surrounding the “temporal landmark thesis on Indigenous lands”, popularly known as the temporal landmark. Formulated by the Supreme Court in 2009, the thesis restricts Indigenous territorial rights solely to areas that were effectively occupied on the date of the Constitution’s promulgation (October 5, 1988). Supporters of the thesis justify this restrictive politics of time by drawing upon a conceptual battle that took place during the 1987–1988 National Constituent Assembly, which opposed the terms “traditional” and “immemorial” in defining those rights. Based on archival research in the Assembly’s records, this study shows that such justification represents a blatant historical distortion. The temporal landmark thesis, I claim, amounts to an attempt to reintroduce—through this distortion—a politics of time that had already been rejected by the original constituent power.
Bionote
Walderez Ramalho is professor of Theory of History at the State University of Santa Catarina. His current research focuses on the politics of time and history, the contested nature of the temporal borders between the present and the past, and the varieties of historical times and their reverberations in contemporary public discourse.
Practical information
When? September 12, 13h30-15h
Where? Malpertuis: UFO, third floor, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 35, 9000 Ghent.
If you wish to join us, please send us an e-mail at tapas@Ugent.be so that we can reserve you a seat.
If you wish to join online, you can do so through this link.