The Brazilian State as an agent of the reproductive process in a village in the Baixo-Sul of Bahia

Abstract

This article explores reproduction as a broad phenomenon that is integrated to social life and marked by power relations, in an analysis of the processes and structures that integrate subjects’ lives and bind them with the State. Reproductive processes, which are more than physiological, connect subjects, health services and other sectors that represent the State. This ethnographic study, carried out between 2011 and 2015, focused on reproduction as a biosocial process among mostly black, low-income shellfish gatherers and fishermen living in Riachão - a village located on an island in the ‘baixo sul’ region of Bahia. Through ethnographic analysis, we explore the experiences of the reproductive process of the 18 women we followed during the research to conclude that the State plays a central role in the network of relationalities that constitute reproduction, establishing an oscillating and ambiguous relationship of care and violence with women at each stage: a fragile and discontinued care relationship during pregnancy; an intense, exclusive relationship marked by violence during childbirth; and a lack of care for the health of women in the puerperium, combined with high surveillance in the care of babies.