Planes of forgetting: suicide among the Ticuna and the administration of narratives about suicide

Abstract

This article examines suicide among the Ticuna based on the dimensions of experience that is little or not directly mentioned in the immediate narratives about the deaths. It thus focuses on how these suicides are lived in the daily practices instilled by state institutions, and on how certain discourses are incorporated in the undertaking of critical daily events. Based on readings, interpretations and local sensibilities, enhanced in dynamics about health, disease and cure, and on the parental demands and expectations related to educational trajectories, the article presents an analysis about the functioning and development of government discourses and programs in indigenous villages.