Tracing identities through interconnections: the biological body, intersubjective experiences and narratives of suffering
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Published
01-10-2026
Telma Camargo da Silva
Abstract
The 1987 radioactive disaster in Goiânia —a «critical event»— revealed the formation of new identities in opposition to the notion of radioacidentados (radiation victims), a classification established by the system of nuclear expertise and defined exclusively by the person’s absorption of high-level doses of radiation. In the search to give meaning to their illness and suffering, new social subjects have emerged and elaborated new interpretations concerning the materiality of contaminated bodies. In narrating their subjective experiences, they situate their identities as victims in relation to the embodied experience of the contaminated site and to the attribution of new meanings to certain objects associated with the disaster itself and nuclear technology in general. The text focuses on this articulation between the biological body, narratives, memory, «things» and the constitution of social identities. It provides a historical analysis, supported by a multivocal ethnography of the Cesium-137 disaster.
How to Cite
Silva, T. C. da. (2026). Tracing identities through interconnections: the biological body, intersubjective experiences and narratives of suffering. Papeles De Identidad, 2026(2), papel 343. https://doi.org/10.1387/pceic.28731
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Keywords
radioactive disaster, narratives, place, embodied memory, material culture, victim identity
References
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Azevedo, A. C. P. de. (2012). Radioproteção em serviços de saúde. Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Secretaria de Estado de Saúde do Rio de Janeiro. Recuperado de: www.fiocruz.br.
Barker, H. M. (1997). Fighting back: justice, The Marshall Islands, and neglected radiation communities. En B. R. Johnston (Ed.), Life and death matters: human rights and the environment at the end of the millennium (pp. 290-306). Altamira Press.
Barrillot, B., Villierme, M-H., y Hudelot, A. (2012). Témoins de la bombe. Univers Polynésiens.
Barthes, R. (1967). Système de la mode. Seuil.
Bean, S. S. (1989). Gandhi and Kahdi, the fabric of Indian independence. En A. B. Weiner y J. Schneider (Eds.), Cloth and human experience (pp. 355-376). Smithsonian Institution Press.
Beck, U. (1993/1986). Risk society: towards a new modernity. Sage Publications.
Bertell, R. (1985). No immediate danger: prognosis for a radioactive Earth. Book Publishing Company.
Bruner, E. (1986). Ethnography as narrative. En V. Turner y E. M. Bruner (Eds.), The anthropology of experience (pp. 139-154). University of Illinois Press.
Connerton, P. (1996). How societies remember. Cambridge University Press.
Cardoso, E. de M. et al. (s/f). Radioatividade – Apostila Educativa. Comissão Nacional de Energia Nuclear de Rio de Janeiro.
Casey, E. S. (1996). How to get from space to place in a fairly short stretch of time. En S. Feld y K. Basso (Eds.), Senses of Place (pp. 13-52). School of American Research Press.
Das, V. (1996). Critical events: an anthropological perspective on contemporary India. Oxford University Press.
Douglas, M., y Wildavsky, A. (1983). Risk and culture: An essay on the selection of technological and environmental dangers. University of California Press.
Garb, P. (1997). Complex problems and no clear solutions: radiation victimization in Russia. En B. R. Johnston (Ed.), Life and death matters: human rights and the environment at the end of the millennium (pp. 307-329). Altamira Press.
Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and self-identity in the late Modern Age. Cambridge University Press.
Gould, J. M., y Goldman, B. A. (1991). Deadly deceit: low-level radiation high-level cover-up. Four Walls Eight Windows. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). (1988). The radiological accident in Goiânia. IAEA.
Jelin, E. (2002). Los trabajos de la memoria. Siglo XXI editores.
Kaplan, L. (1992). A slow motion emergency: radiation health effects and Hanford (tesis doctoral inédita). Brandeis University.
Kleinman, A., Das, V., y Lock, M. (1997). Introduction. En A. Kleinman, V. Das y M. Lock (Eds.), Social suffering (pp. ix-xxvii). University of California Press.
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Mauss, M. (1983/1936). Les techniques du corps. En Sociologie et Anthropologie (pp. 363-386). Presse Universitaire de France.
Miller, D. (2010). Stuff. Polity Press.
Oliveira, L. S. R. (s/f). Detecção das radiações. s/d.
Ortner, Sh. B. (2007). Poder e projetos: reflexões sobre a agência. En M. Pillar Grossi, C. Eckert y P. Henry Fry (Orgs.). Conferências e diálogos: saberes e práticas antropológicas (pp. 45- 80). Nova Letra.
Paine, R. (1987). Accidents, ideologies and routines: ‘Chernobyl’ over Norway. Anthropology Today, 3(4), 7-10.
Palmlund, I. (1992). Social drama and risk evaluation. En Sh. Krimsky y D. Golding (Eds.), Social theories of risk (pp.197-212). Praeger Publishers.
Petryna, A. (2002). Life exposed: biological citizens after Chernobyl. Princeton University Press.
Rabinow, P. (1996). Artificiality and Enlightenment: From Sociobiology to Biosociality. En Essays on the Anthropology of Reason (pp. 91-111). Princeton University Press.
Rozental, J. de J. (1991). Radiological accident in Goiânia – Implementation of response – lessons learned. Comunicación presentada en IAEA Interregional Training Course on Planning, Preparedness Response to Radiological Emergences (Argonne National Laboratory
– USA, 1989,1990, 1991); y en IAEA Interregional Training Course on Safety and Regulation Sealed Sources of Radioactive Materials (Instituto de Investigaciones Nucleares – México). Mimeo.
Sahlins, M. (1976). Culture and Practical Reason. The University of Chicago.
Stephens, Sh. (1987). Chernobyl fallout: a hard rain for the Saami. Cultural Survival Quarterly, 11(2), 66-71.
Stephens, Sh. (1995). Physical and cultural reproduction in a post-Chernobyl Norwegian Saami community. En F. D. Ginsburg y R. Rapp (Eds.), Conceiving the New World Order: the global politics of reproduction (pp. 270-287). University of California Press.
Silva, G. O. da. (1999). Angra I e a melancolia de uma era: um estudo sobre a construção social do risco. EdUFF.
Silva, T. C. da. (1997). Biomedical discourses and health care experiences: the Goiânia radiological disaster. En A. Leibing (Ed.), The medical anthropologies in Brazil (pp. 67-79). VWB.
Silva, T. C. da. (1998a). «Soldado é superior ao tempo»: da ordem militar à experiência do corpo como lócus de resistência. Horizontes Antropológicos, 5(9), 119-143.
Silva, T. C. da. (1998b). Política da memória: recompondo as lembranças no caso do desastre radiológico de Goiânia. En C. Brito Freitas (Ed.), Memória (pp. 117-138). Universidade Católica de Goiás.
Silva, T. C. da. (2001). Bodily memory and the politics of remembrance: the aftermath of Goiânia radiological disaster. High Plains Applied Anthropologist, 21(1), 40-52.
Silva, T. C. da. (2002). Radiation illness representation and experience: the aftermath of the Goiânia radiological disaster (tesis doctoral inédita). City University of New York, Graduate Center (CUNY – GC).
Silva, T. C. da. (2004a). Desastre como processo: saberes, vulnerabilidade e sofrimento social no caso de Goiânia. En A. Leibing (Ed.), Tecnologias do corpo: uma antropologia das medicinas no Brasil (pp. 201-225). NAU.
Silva, T. C. da. (2004b). Os cientistas sociais no cenário político das sessões especiais do parlamento – a documentação de um caso. En F. Chagas Rabelo y G. D’Arc Bernardes (Eds.), Políticas públicas e cidadania (pp. 13-27). Cânone Editorial.
Silva, T. C. da (2005). As fronteiras das lembranças: memória corporificada, construção de identidades e purificação simbólica no caso de desastre radioativo. Vivência, 28, 57-73.
Silva, T. C. da (2007). As celebrações, a memória traumática e os rituais de aniversário. Revista UFG, IX(1), 12-18.
Silva, T. C. da. (2009a). Radiation narratives and illness: the politics of memory on the Goiânia disaster. VDM Verlag Dr. Muller.
Silva, T. C. da. (2009b). Colecionando cartões postais: os lugares constituídos em contexto de isolamento. Visualidades, 17(1), 212-233.
Silva, T. C. da. (2012). Eventos críticos: sobreviventes, narrativas, testemunhos e silêncios. Anais Reunião Brasileira De Antropologia, 27.
Sturken, M. (1997). Tangled memories. Why some achievements survive the test of time and others don’t. Basic Books.
Todeschini, M. (2001). The bomb’s womb? Women and the atom bomb. En V. Das et al. (Eds.), Remaking a world: violence, social suffering, and recovery (pp. 102-156). University of California Press.
Turner, V. (1986). Dewey, Dilthey, and drama: an essay in the anthropology of experience. En V. Turner y E. M. Bruner (Eds.), The anthropology of experience (pp. 33-43). University of Illinois Press.
Vernet, D. (1998, 13 de noviembre). Chroniques – International: Reseña de Alexievitch, S. La Supplication: Tchernobyl, Chroniques de notre monde après l’apocalypse (J. C. Lattès). Le Monde, 13-14.
Weiner, A. B., y Schneider, J. (Eds.) (1989). Cloth and human experience. Smithsonian Institution Press.
Alcalay, G. (1995). Statement before the Presidential Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments. Washington D.C. Mimeo.
Alves, I. P. et al. (2012). Radioatividade. Comissão Nacional de Energia Nuclear de Rio de Janeiro (CNEN).
Azevedo, A. C. P. de. (2012). Radioproteção em serviços de saúde. Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Secretaria de Estado de Saúde do Rio de Janeiro. Recuperado de: www.fiocruz.br.
Barker, H. M. (1997). Fighting back: justice, The Marshall Islands, and neglected radiation communities. En B. R. Johnston (Ed.), Life and death matters: human rights and the environment at the end of the millennium (pp. 290-306). Altamira Press.
Barrillot, B., Villierme, M-H., y Hudelot, A. (2012). Témoins de la bombe. Univers Polynésiens.
Barthes, R. (1967). Système de la mode. Seuil.
Bean, S. S. (1989). Gandhi and Kahdi, the fabric of Indian independence. En A. B. Weiner y J. Schneider (Eds.), Cloth and human experience (pp. 355-376). Smithsonian Institution Press.
Beck, U. (1993/1986). Risk society: towards a new modernity. Sage Publications.
Bertell, R. (1985). No immediate danger: prognosis for a radioactive Earth. Book Publishing Company.
Bruner, E. (1986). Ethnography as narrative. En V. Turner y E. M. Bruner (Eds.), The anthropology of experience (pp. 139-154). University of Illinois Press.
Connerton, P. (1996). How societies remember. Cambridge University Press.
Cardoso, E. de M. et al. (s/f). Radioatividade – Apostila Educativa. Comissão Nacional de Energia Nuclear de Rio de Janeiro.
Casey, E. S. (1996). How to get from space to place in a fairly short stretch of time. En S. Feld y K. Basso (Eds.), Senses of Place (pp. 13-52). School of American Research Press.
Das, V. (1996). Critical events: an anthropological perspective on contemporary India. Oxford University Press.
Douglas, M., y Wildavsky, A. (1983). Risk and culture: An essay on the selection of technological and environmental dangers. University of California Press.
Garb, P. (1997). Complex problems and no clear solutions: radiation victimization in Russia. En B. R. Johnston (Ed.), Life and death matters: human rights and the environment at the end of the millennium (pp. 307-329). Altamira Press.
Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and self-identity in the late Modern Age. Cambridge University Press.
Gould, J. M., y Goldman, B. A. (1991). Deadly deceit: low-level radiation high-level cover-up. Four Walls Eight Windows. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). (1988). The radiological accident in Goiânia. IAEA.
Jelin, E. (2002). Los trabajos de la memoria. Siglo XXI editores.
Kaplan, L. (1992). A slow motion emergency: radiation health effects and Hanford (tesis doctoral inédita). Brandeis University.
Kleinman, A., Das, V., y Lock, M. (1997). Introduction. En A. Kleinman, V. Das y M. Lock (Eds.), Social suffering (pp. ix-xxvii). University of California Press.
Lochard, J. (1996). Psychological and social impacts of post-accident situations: lessons from the Chernobyl Accident. Comunicación presentada en el International Congress on Radiation Protection – IRPA9, 14-19 April, Viena. Mimeo.
Luz, L. M. (2012). Radioatividade. InfoEscola.
Magnani, J. G. (1996). Quando o campo é a cidade – fazendo antropologia na metrópole. En J. G. Magnani y L. de Lucca Torres (Eds.), Na metrópole- textos de antropologia urbana (pp. 12-53). Editora da Universidade de São Paulo/ FAPESP.
Mauss, M. (1983/1936). Les techniques du corps. En Sociologie et Anthropologie (pp. 363-386). Presse Universitaire de France.
Miller, D. (2010). Stuff. Polity Press.
Oliveira, L. S. R. (s/f). Detecção das radiações. s/d.
Ortner, Sh. B. (2007). Poder e projetos: reflexões sobre a agência. En M. Pillar Grossi, C. Eckert y P. Henry Fry (Orgs.). Conferências e diálogos: saberes e práticas antropológicas (pp. 45- 80). Nova Letra.
Paine, R. (1987). Accidents, ideologies and routines: ‘Chernobyl’ over Norway. Anthropology Today, 3(4), 7-10.
Palmlund, I. (1992). Social drama and risk evaluation. En Sh. Krimsky y D. Golding (Eds.), Social theories of risk (pp.197-212). Praeger Publishers.
Petryna, A. (2002). Life exposed: biological citizens after Chernobyl. Princeton University Press.
Rabinow, P. (1996). Artificiality and Enlightenment: From Sociobiology to Biosociality. En Essays on the Anthropology of Reason (pp. 91-111). Princeton University Press.
Rozental, J. de J. (1991). Radiological accident in Goiânia – Implementation of response – lessons learned. Comunicación presentada en IAEA Interregional Training Course on Planning, Preparedness Response to Radiological Emergences (Argonne National Laboratory
– USA, 1989,1990, 1991); y en IAEA Interregional Training Course on Safety and Regulation Sealed Sources of Radioactive Materials (Instituto de Investigaciones Nucleares – México). Mimeo.
Sahlins, M. (1976). Culture and Practical Reason. The University of Chicago.
Stephens, Sh. (1987). Chernobyl fallout: a hard rain for the Saami. Cultural Survival Quarterly, 11(2), 66-71.
Stephens, Sh. (1995). Physical and cultural reproduction in a post-Chernobyl Norwegian Saami community. En F. D. Ginsburg y R. Rapp (Eds.), Conceiving the New World Order: the global politics of reproduction (pp. 270-287). University of California Press.
Silva, G. O. da. (1999). Angra I e a melancolia de uma era: um estudo sobre a construção social do risco. EdUFF.
Silva, T. C. da. (1997). Biomedical discourses and health care experiences: the Goiânia radiological disaster. En A. Leibing (Ed.), The medical anthropologies in Brazil (pp. 67-79). VWB.
Silva, T. C. da. (1998a). «Soldado é superior ao tempo»: da ordem militar à experiência do corpo como lócus de resistência. Horizontes Antropológicos, 5(9), 119-143.
Silva, T. C. da. (1998b). Política da memória: recompondo as lembranças no caso do desastre radiológico de Goiânia. En C. Brito Freitas (Ed.), Memória (pp. 117-138). Universidade Católica de Goiás.
Silva, T. C. da. (2001). Bodily memory and the politics of remembrance: the aftermath of Goiânia radiological disaster. High Plains Applied Anthropologist, 21(1), 40-52.
Silva, T. C. da. (2002). Radiation illness representation and experience: the aftermath of the Goiânia radiological disaster (tesis doctoral inédita). City University of New York, Graduate Center (CUNY – GC).
Silva, T. C. da. (2004a). Desastre como processo: saberes, vulnerabilidade e sofrimento social no caso de Goiânia. En A. Leibing (Ed.), Tecnologias do corpo: uma antropologia das medicinas no Brasil (pp. 201-225). NAU.
Silva, T. C. da. (2004b). Os cientistas sociais no cenário político das sessões especiais do parlamento – a documentação de um caso. En F. Chagas Rabelo y G. D’Arc Bernardes (Eds.), Políticas públicas e cidadania (pp. 13-27). Cânone Editorial.
Silva, T. C. da (2005). As fronteiras das lembranças: memória corporificada, construção de identidades e purificação simbólica no caso de desastre radioativo. Vivência, 28, 57-73.
Silva, T. C. da (2007). As celebrações, a memória traumática e os rituais de aniversário. Revista UFG, IX(1), 12-18.
Silva, T. C. da. (2009a). Radiation narratives and illness: the politics of memory on the Goiânia disaster. VDM Verlag Dr. Muller.
Silva, T. C. da. (2009b). Colecionando cartões postais: os lugares constituídos em contexto de isolamento. Visualidades, 17(1), 212-233.
Silva, T. C. da. (2012). Eventos críticos: sobreviventes, narrativas, testemunhos e silêncios. Anais Reunião Brasileira De Antropologia, 27.
Sturken, M. (1997). Tangled memories. Why some achievements survive the test of time and others don’t. Basic Books.
Todeschini, M. (2001). The bomb’s womb? Women and the atom bomb. En V. Das et al. (Eds.), Remaking a world: violence, social suffering, and recovery (pp. 102-156). University of California Press.
Turner, V. (1986). Dewey, Dilthey, and drama: an essay in the anthropology of experience. En V. Turner y E. M. Bruner (Eds.), The anthropology of experience (pp. 33-43). University of Illinois Press.
Vernet, D. (1998, 13 de noviembre). Chroniques – International: Reseña de Alexievitch, S. La Supplication: Tchernobyl, Chroniques de notre monde après l’apocalypse (J. C. Lattès). Le Monde, 13-14.
Weiner, A. B., y Schneider, J. (Eds.) (1989). Cloth and human experience. Smithsonian Institution Press.
Section
Fundamentals
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