Um estudo sobre representação dos povos indígenas nos livros didáticos de Sociologia

Abstract

This dissertation investigates how indigenous peoples are represented in sociology textbooks used in Brazilian high schools. It starts from a relevant gap in the literature: despite advances in debates on diversity and inclusion, stereotypical representations of subalternized groups, such as indigenous peoples, persist. This scenario poses a sociological enigma: if there is a consolidated critical awareness of the limitations of these images, why do they continue to be reproduced? This study seeks to understand the social, symbolic, and institutional mechanisms that sustain this permanence, analyzing how these representations are constructed, disseminated, and legitimized in the school environment. The central objective is to examine how indigenous peoples are represented in sociology textbooks approved by the National Textbook Program (PNLD) in the 2012, 2015, and 2018 editions, understanding these images as social constructions mediated by symbolic disputes and normative frameworks. To contextualize these representations in sociology, history books and colonial documents, such as the letters of Pero Vaz de Caminha and Father Manuel da Nóbrega, were also analyzed in order to identify possible continuities and reformulations in the stigmas attributed to indigenous peoples over time. From a methodological point of view, this is a qualitative study, conducted through a systematic reading of passages that address indigenous peoples, articulating textual interpretation and theoretical reasoning. The theoretical framework draws on classic and contemporary authors in sociology, such as Émile Durkheim, Norbert Elias, Erving Goffman, Pierre Bourdieu, and Circe Bittencourt, among others. The initial hypothesis considered the possibility of the invisibility of indigenous peoples in the books analyzed. However, the results showed that these subjects are not invisible, but rather represented in a stigmatizing manner, albeit through updated discourses.