Estigma e violência: as faces da racialização em processos criminais no pós-abolição em Santa Maria – RS (1920 – 1925)

Abstract

This study examines racialization in the municipality of Santa Maria – RS in the post-abolition period, focusing on its relationships with stigma and violence. The sources utilized include texts published in the Revista Commemorativa do Primeiro Centenario da Fundação da Cidade de Santa Maria (1914) and, primarily, criminal processes from the Santa Maria district, available at the Historical Municipal Archive of Santa Maria (AHMSM), dated between 1920 and 1925. Criminal processes serve as a privileged source for this type of analysis, as they reveal stigmatization and racialization embedded in the technical-scientific knowledge upon which the police and justice system rely. Additionally, these criminal processes provide access to the discourse and daily lives of ordinary people, where instances of racialization frequently emerge. The criminal processes were categorized based on “stigma” and “violence,” and analyzed using the methodology proposed by Barth (1981) in dialogue with E. P. Thompson and G. Levi. This approach allowed for an analysis of how racialization is employed by individuals as a resource for maximizing gains in competitive situations, as well as its feedback relationship with structural racism.