INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, CITIZENSHIP, AND CIVIL REGISTRATION: A Jurisprudential Dichotomy

Abstract

The present article aims to analyze how the civil registration of birth of Indigenous peoples has been understood and assimilated within Brazilian labor jurisprudence. This analysis considers two contrasting interpretations derived from a summary examination of relevant case law, which stand in diametrical opposition. On one hand, the registration is viewed as fundamentally important for the protection of human dignity and the assurance of free, autonomous, and full exercise of citizenship—of which the right to work is a corollary. On the other hand, there emerges a persistent association, by the legal apparatus, of civil registration with an integrationist ideal rooted in a historical process of dehumanization and depersonalization of Indigenous cultural identity and ancestry—elements that are existentially intrinsic to Indigenous peoples. This research, which is far from gratuitous, adopts as a paradigm the jurisprudence of the Regional Labor Court of the 12th Region, whose jurisdiction encompasses the state of Santa Catarina. It seeks to, simultaneously, demystify the civil registration of Indigenous peoples—dissociating it from an obsolete and undemocratic ideological framework—and to examine how this registration is perceived and positioned within a legal system that has historically failed to recognize Indigenous singularity. To this end, the article will first outline the central problem identified, and subsequently—mindful of the sensitivity of the topic—clarify how decolonial thought is necessary for the construction of a new juridical culture.