BLUNDO, Giorgio. Hidden Acts, Open Talks.

How Anthropology Can "Observe" and Describe

Corruption. In: PARU IN NUIJTEN, M. e ANDERS, G. (orgs.). Corruption and the Secret of the
Law: a Legal Anthropological Perspective. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007. p. 27-52.

- descrição da corrupção traz desafios de ordem ética e metodológica. Ele tenta trabalhar a
abordagem antropológica sobre a corrupção da seguinte forma:

a) corrupção como desvio

- “The notion of corruption is theoretically inseparable from the transgression of a set of norms
(juridical or ethical). It must be stated that most of the scholarly definitions—which are not far
removed from a legal definition—consider corruption essentially as a deviation in relation to norms
that govern public service or that, more generally, define the safeguard of public interest (Rogow
and Lasswell 1966: 132).” (p. 28)

- Perceptions and evaluations of corrupt practices are culturally embedded. The corruptive
phenomenon therefore invites questions similar to those raised by the sociology of deviance. (p. 28)
Moralidades situacionais….

- “The eternal question of definition ceases to be a simple exercise of style and erudition when it
comes to “observing” the phenomenon. This is the second way in which an empirical socio-
anthropology of corruption that deals with strongly normative representations and takes an interest
in clandestine or hidden practices, faces problems that are similar to those encountered by criminal
sociology or the sociology of deviance.” (p. 29)

- Risco e dilema em observar a corrupção. Risco em crimnalizar suas práticas, em transformar uma
questão sociológica em uma questão de polícia; e o dilema para o pesquisador em se inserir no
grupo e explicar os objetivos do seu estudo para os seus informantes. (p. 29) PONTO
IMPORTANTÍSSIMO!

- “By their descriptions, researchers reveal acts, which had previously been hidden. How then, can
the information collected in the field be conveyed, when their revelation can have negative
consequences for the informants? How can the theme be approached without the risk of destroying
the relation of confidence between researcher and informant and without giving the impression of
searching for confessions, given the nearly always illegal character of most corruptive behaviors?”
(p. 30). Pensar sobre esse ponto! if it is the researcher who has discovered the affair, on the basis
of which criteria can he or she label specific practices as corruption? Tratar isso como corrupção
de uma perspectiva LEGAL e não MORAL. Ela passa a ser MORAL para João, quando
Bruno fala em vender os fuzis pro tráfico.

b) corrupção como bruxaria

- corrupção envolve segredo, e com isso dinâmicas parecidas com as descrições sobre bruxaria são
evocadas. Corrupção, assim como bruxaria, é um “segredo público”.
“These factors of “social invisibility” (Lascoumes 1999: 15f., 24) ensure that the majority of the
corruptive facts, and the magic practices, far from being visible, present themselves to the
researcher essentially in the form of diffuse accusations or allegations without proof, conveyed by
rumor and gossip.” (p. 31)

- Quando a corrupção é descoberta….. “The spectacular and ritualized revelation of the moves of
the corrupted, or of the sorcerer, is generally inscribed in a context of emergent movements of
moralization of politics or anti-witchcraft struggles: changes of government in Africa, for example,
are privileged occasions for witch hunts, in both the literal and the figurative sense of the term.” (p.
31)

- Corrupção e bruxaria como formas de explicação causal sobre o mundo: “Corruption, just as much
as sorcery, functions in a system of circular beliefs that are private and feed themselves, and that
can explain unhappiness, disgrace, the failure of an administrative step, and the loss of a case in
court. In Africa, in order to explain the trajectories of quick wealth, someone can be suspected just
as easily of corrupt behavior as of having recourse to magic and/or witchcraft. Corruption and
witchcraft are thus mechanisms to interpret, explain, and attempt to manipulate the world.” (p. 31)

c) corrupção como transação

- Descriminalizar a corrupção, enxergando-a como uma relação SOCIAL, ou seja, dotada de

significados: “At heart, the corruptive exchange is only one of the possible modalities of interaction
between state and citizens, or between public services and users, and for this reason must be
reinserted into a larger movement of social relations based on exchange, reciprocity, and
negotiation.” (p. 33) Da transgressão para transação

- A performance da corrupção, ligada também a dimensão estética do esquema pela sua “oratura”:
“In the first place, from a synchronic angle the performative aspects of interaction are important for
describing corruption. Negotiations do not all happen in the same way. It is a question of
competencies which, far from being concentrated on the simple determination of the sum to pay or
to offer, concern the temporality of the process, the hidden or implicit codes, the gestures, and the
language adopted.” (p. 33) Negociar na corrupção é também um aprendizado. Há uma
socialização da corrupção.

- A corrupção é um processo, de deve ser vista em conjunto com um “antes, durante e depois” do
ato corruptivo: “In fact, describing a corrupting transaction implies identifying a before and an after,
which are contained in the biography of the actors of the exchange, their professional experiences,
the history of the administrative service concerned or, again, in the evolution of public policies put
in place by the state and its different governments to fight against corruption.” (p. 33). Encarar
então o “espólio de guerra” enquanto um processo, e descrever assim suas etapas. PENSAR
NUM ESQUEMA GRÁFICO?

- “The observability of corruption is structured by a constant tension between occultation and

visibility and between the spectacular and the commonplace.” (p. 34). Práticas de corrupção são
sempre ocultas e difíceis de observar, por conta de tudo que já foi exposto. Quando elas são
normalizadas no cotidiano e todo mundo vê, elas deixam de ser encaradas enquanto
“corrupção”.

- Risco de EXOTIZAÇÃO da prática de corrupção, que vai na contramão da descrição etnográfica:

“The risk then for the observer/describer is of being attracted only by the spectacular dimension of
“visible” corruption, by sensational affairs, or by scandals that make it into the newspaper
headlines. A good description of the practices of corruption must, on the contrary, restore them to
their triteness, their daily character, their ordinary dimension, and their ambivalence.” (p. 35)

- Sobre o filtro das moralidades situacionais na descrição de práticas de corrupção: “A

description of a corrupting practice will most often combine direct and second-degree observations
and present contradictory discourses on the practice. One can no doubt affirm that every description
of corruption, which is always preceded (explicitly or implicitly) by an evaluation and qualification
of
the observed behaviors, is a negotiated description, in the sense that the actors, according to their
position with respect to the corrupting act (victim, corrupter, corrupted, magistrate, and so on),
characterize it with the help of systems of norms, moral values and processes of justification that
can diverge considerably.” (p. 35). Com o “espólio de guerra” não é diferente.

- Descrição das práticas de corrupção são sempre fragmentadas. Nunca se descreve o “processo”
como um todo. Daí a necessidade de, para compreender a corrupção enquanto processo, recorrer a
outras fontes, estudos de caso, trabalhos de campo, fontes jornalísticas, entrevistas, biografias, etc.
(p. 35)

- Análises de jornal representam “the most important mechanism in public culture for the
circulation of discourses on corruption” (Gupta 1995: 385)”.

- ISSO AQUI PODE SER O GANCHO PARA A CONTRIBUIÇÃO E RELEVÂNCIA DO PAPER.

NINGUÉM TEM ACESSO A DESCRIÇÕES DE PRIMEIRA MÃO SOBRE ESSE TIPO DE
SACANAGEM NA POLÍCIA: “But these sources (jornais, processos penais) only reveal the points
at which the underground river of corruption is exposed to the light. Observation, in its different
forms and modalities, then becomes an unavoidable method for the exploration of the river of illicit
political practices. Not only does observation enable an awareness of the gap between formal and
pragmatic norms, it also gives access to practices that remain in the sphere of the implicit, the
unsaid, and the inadmissible.” (p. 36) Policiais “escondem” essas performances de corrupção do
público, revelando-a somente em situações muitos específicas. Quem não é “Mike”, quem não tem
acesso ao “backstage” do cotidiano policial, não tem acesso a eles. E o uso de entrevistas é
extremamente limitado.

- Observations of corrupting practices also often surface on the margins of participant observation
centered on other themes. (p. 37). É o meu caso, apesar da “sacanagem” ser um dos elementos que
levam também ao “ser policial”.

- “One can identify four major descriptive registers in the anthropological literature on corruption:
the personal anecdote, the biographical trajectory, the polyphonic case study, and the bureaucratic
itinerary. Each of these registers corresponds to empirical sources of a different nature and translates
levels of increasing complexity in the problematization of the object of research.” (p. 44)

- anedotas do próprio pesquisador (histórias que ele passou)

- trajetórias biográficas (antropólogo seleciona uma sequencia de fatos biográficos para descrever
a corrupção através da trajetória de alguém, mostrar a corrupção no seu dia-a-dia)

- estudos de caso polifônicos (como na descrição do Gupta na Índia sobre os dois camponeses)
“Unlike the individual biographical trajectories, the study of a case of interactions puts several
actors on stage. It is, so to say, “polyphonic.” (p. 46)

Crítica do autor: “This kind of case study, however, only deals with a particular transaction. If
Gupta had multiplied his observations at Sharmaji’s office, or if he had made the same observations
in other administrative sites, he would no doubt have witnessed successful transactions and would
have perhaps appreciated to what extent the weight of the social status of postulants determines the
conclusion of the transaction or the sum to be paid. In crossing his observation notes with emic
descriptive stories, he would have been capable of constructing archetypal or modal descriptions
(Olivier de Sardan 2003), in this way synthesizing several singular descriptions.” (p. 47) ESSE
AQUI É UM DOS LIMITES DO PAPER, QUE DEVE FICAR MUITO CLARO!
- trajetórias burocráticas escolha de um dado local para descrever o passo-a-passo de alguma
atividade de corrupção. Aqui se consegue compreender tais práticas enquanto “processo”. (p. 47)