Culture, barbarism, and ethics reflections on the role of Information Science

ABSTRACT

Introduction:  Ethics in cultural practices is a complex and challenging topic, especially when expressions of identity and tradition involve elements of violence, pain, or suffering, both human and animal. Thus, ethical aspects transcend the boundaries of fields such as anthropology and philosophy and enter Information Science, which focuses on the processes of information production, mediation, and appropriation across diverse social and cultural contexts.

Objective:  This study proposes a reflection on the application of ethics in Information Science in the face of cultural practices involving violence and barbarity. Methodology: To better address the topic, this article is divided into a study of the concept of the civilizing process, a discussion of cultural practices bordering on acts of barbarity, and an examination of the ethical aspects of Information Science.

Results:  It was observed that the civilizing process is constantly under construction and can control emotions through various means. In general, the application of ethics in the informational treatment of cultural practices that carry traces of violence is a field of profound tensions. In this tradition, identity and morality intertwine.

Conclusion:  Recognizing that information is not neutral, and that the use of ethics is indispensable to avoid the reproduction of barbarity under the protection of culture, thus contributing to an informational practice committed to dignity and respect for diverse conceptions of humanity and cosmos.

KEYWORDS
Information ethics; Cultural practices; Violence; Barbarism; Symbolic violence; Information; memory.

RESUMO

Introdução:  ética nas práticas culturais se mostra um tema complexo e desafiador, principalmente quando as expressões de identidade e a tradição envolvem elementos de violência, dor ou sofrimento, tanto humanos quanto animais. Assim, aspectos éticos ultrapassam os limites de áreas como antropologia e filosofia e adentram o campo da Ciência da Informação, que visa aos processos de produção, mediação e apropriação de informações em contextos sociais e culturais diversos.

Objetivo:  O presente estudo propõe uma reflexão voltada para a aplicação da ética na Ciência da Informação frente às práticas culturais que envolvem violência e barbárie. Metodologia: Para melhor abordagem do tema, este artigo se divide em um estudo do conceito processo civilizador; a seguir, centra-se na discussão das práticas culturais que resvalam em atos de barbárie; por fim, discute aspectos éticos da Ciência da Informação.

Resultados:  Percebeu-se que o processo civilizador está em constante construção e pode controlar as emoções sob diversos meios. De forma geral, a aplicação da ética no tratamento informacional de práticas culturais que carregam traços de violência é um campo de tensões profundas, em que se entrelaçam tradição, identidade e moralidade.

Conclusão:  Reconhecer que a informação não é neutra, e que o uso da ética se faz indispensável para evitar a reprodução da barbárie sob a proteção da cultura, contribuindo assim para uma prática informacional comprometida com a dignidade e com o respeito das diversas concepções de humanidade e de cosmos.

PALAVRAS-CHAVE
Ética informacional; Práticas culturais; Violência; Barbárie; Violência simbólica; Informação; Memória.

1 INTRODUCTION

The ethics of cultural practices are a complex and challenging topic, especially when certain expressions of identity and tradition involve violence, pain, or suffering, whether inflicted on humans or animals. Examples include festivities involving symbolic violence, the exclusion of minorities, animal fights, religious rituals involving sacrifices, and festive practices reproducing relations of domination. These manifestations bring into question the boundary between culture, barbarism, and ethics. In Brazil, such tensions are evident in practices such as Vaquejada and rodeos, as well as in banned events like the Farra do Boi.

Regarding practices involving humans, university hazing and social group initiation rituals stand out. These rituals may involve humiliation, public exposure, forced alcohol consumption, or physical trials as a means of establishing belonging. In more extreme cases, initiation rites require participants to commit illegal or degrading acts, revealing varying degrees of symbolic and physical violence.

In the contemporary era, marked by the globalization of access to information, the circulation of these practices on digital media expands public debate on their meanings, values, and moral implications. This discussion extends beyond fields such as anthropology and philosophy to include Information Science (IS). IS examines the processes of producing, mediating, and appropriating information in various social and cultural contexts (Pereira, Pinheiro, and Souza, 2023).

In this scenario, the media, and particularly the language of information, play a central role in producing, organizing, and circulating meanings about violence. Information serves as more than just a record of events; it is also an active element in the social construction of narratives that interpret and legitimize them. Studies on language, media, and gender-based violence demonstrate that informational processes-from selection and description to dissemination-can perpetuate stereotypes, render individuals invisible, or promote visibility and critical examination of inequalities and rights violations (Gomes and Santos, 2023).

To understand violence as a social phenomenon, one must transcend reductionist views and recognize its complexity and multiple determinants. Rifiotis (1998) highlights that violence is not a homogeneous entity but rather a field of socially constructed practices and meanings traversed by cultural, symbolic, and institutional dimensions. This perspective enables us to recognize that certain manifestations of violence, often normalized in daily life, are deeply linked to historical and cultural processes that shape their social legitimation or contestation.

This study proposes reflecting on the application of ethics in information and IS in the face of cultural practices involving violence and barbarism. To begin this reflection, we asked: How can IS contribute ethically to the understanding, mediation, and representation of such phenomena?

This question considers the challenges of understanding culture and barbarism, enriching our thinking and broadening possibilities in information studies and practice. Information science (IS) offers theoretical and methodological tools to understand how information flows contribute to the legitimization, perpetuation, or questioning of certain cultural practices, highlighting a field of ethical and informational tensions. Studying ethics through the lens of violence and barbarism in cultural manifestations enables IS to reflect on the regimes of visibility, representation, and preservation of communities' cultural and symbolic heritage.

To better address this topic, the article is divided into three parts. First, it studies the concept of the civilizing process. Next, it discusses cultural practices that veer into acts of barbarism. Finally, it discusses the role of ethics within IS.

2 METHODOLOGY

This descriptive, exploratory study takes a qualitative approach based on a review of literature and documents. Between July and August of 2025, the Information Science Database (Base de Dados em Ciência da Informação - BRAPCI) and Google Scholar were consulted.

To broaden the scope and ensure greater rigor in source selection, the search was supplemented with relevant databases. Notably, the study was resubmitted to SciELO for a new round of evaluation for its representativeness of Latin American scientific output, as well as to Scopus, to expand the dialogue with the international literature.

The search terms "ethics," "barbarism AND information," "information science AND ethics," "cultural practices," and "symbolic violence" were used, combined with Boolean operators. Publications in all languages, without time restrictions, were considered, with priority given to those most closely aligned with the research topic.

Documents addressing the intersection of ethics, culture, barbarism, and information science were included as selection criteria, while those without a direct relationship to the object of study were excluded.

The theoretical analysis was complemented by a survey of illustrative cases of cultural practices in Brazil that raise ethical dilemmas. These cases were identified from secondary documentary sources, including reports from widely circulated news outlets, legal documents (e.g., court decisions and relevant legislation), and institutional reports from civil society organizations. These sources were selected based on their relevance, public impact, and relationship to the investigated theme.

The analytical procedure involved examining the data through interpretive qualitative analysis to identify categories related to ethics, violence, culture, and informational processes. The analysis focused on identifying patterns, tensions, and recurrences in discourses and representations of these practices and their impact on informational processes and regimes of visibility.

3 THE CIVILIZING PROCESS - NORBERT ELIAS: THE GAME OF EMOTIONS

Throughout history, transformations occur, bringing about changes in ways of life, social organization, human behavior, and social practices. These changes often occur without being fully recognized by the people living at that time. For example, what is considered violence at one time may be considered security (in the case of the police), fun, or entertainment (in the case of combat sports) at another time. Thus, Norbert Elias’s studies¹ on the "civilizing process" can help us understand social practices that lie between culture and barbarism.

The concept of civilization is initially slippery since it depends on what is defined as civilized and what is not. Since there are established standards that define acceptable human behavior for a given time period, as well as standards deemed incorrect, aggressive, or unnecessary, civilization is malleable and adapts to time and place. Therefore, what is considered uncivilized today and causes us embarrassment was once the societal norm.

Elias's studies focus on social norms-rules established during a specific historical period-to understand what it meant to "be civilized" in that society. This understanding is necessary to avoid falling into stereotypes of right and wrong, good and bad, and beautiful and ugly. It concerns the stage of a society's development, which continuously unfolds. "It is quite possible that our stage of civilization, our behavior, will cause our descendants embarrassment-similar to how we sometimes feel about the behavior of our ancestors" (Elias, 1994, p. 73).

To distinguish between the "uncivilized" and the "civilized," we must understand the phenomenon in the context of its emergence and validity, which requires us to go back in time. Considering the historical context of an event distances us from an already fixed and complete truth, leading us to ask how we came to possess it.

According to Elias (1994), the civilizing process involves self-regulation and self-control of bodily functions and objects, such that social norms and rules are internalized and adhered to within a given social and historical context. The author argues that "The Civilizing Process," an influential work in sociology and Elias's most important book, was first published in two volumes in 1939.

All the distinctive characteristics we attribute to it-the existence of machinery, scientific discoveries, forms of government, or whatever else-attest to the existence of a particular structure of human relations, a unique social structure, and corresponding forms of behavior (Elias, 1994, p. 73).

The standard of "good behavior" in the Middle Ages was defined by the concept of courtesy, which was considered appropriate by the court. Representing self-awareness and socially acceptable behavior, this concept defined how people behaved at court. It served as the basis for the "specific code of behavior that first emerged in the great feudal courts and then spread to broader social strata" (Elias, 1994, p. 76).

According to 13th-century historians, plundering, pillaging, and murder were common practices in the warrior society of that era (Elias, 1994, p. 192). Such acts were widespread in other countries, making these practices common at that time. Elias highlights that cruel acts were present across various sectors of society and were practiced by people in all spheres without leading to the exclusion of individuals from social life. "Their perpetrators were not banished. The pleasure of killing and torturing was great and socially permitted" (Elias, 1994, p. 192).

Elias (1994) also notes that transformations occur in the emotional realm, as battles become less overt and uninhibited with each historical advance-that is, violent situations transform. According to the author, in modern times, "cruelty and the joy in the destruction and torment of others, as well as the display of physical superiority, have been placed under increasingly strong social control, supported by state organization" (Elias, 1994, p. 191). This means that countless instances of violence have been contained and reorganized into new patterns, making them appear nonviolent.

During times of social upheaval or when social control is less rigid, instances of violence can be observed more freely and directly without the perpetrators feeling shame or society viewing such acts with revulsion. As violent actions become controlled through increased surveillance, greater social control, and punitive social power, they are deemed unacceptable by much of contemporary society. Thus, these emotional outbursts become rare "exceptional phenomena" and "pathological degeneration" (Elias, 1994, pp. 191-192).

In modern society, emotions must be refined and rationalized. How does modern society "calm" emotions so that they exhibit control and reason? Elias (1994) cites sports games as an example. They are institutionalized and considered cultural practices. In these games, "belligerence and aggression find socially permitted expression" (p. 200) without anyone questioning the level of violence against another human being or against an animal. This lack of emotional control, which is legitimized by society, can occur when a person is the agent or a spectator of the action. Both boxers and spectators experience a "moderate and precisely regulated freedom granted for the release of these emotions" (Elias, 1994, p. 200).

This release of emotions can also occur simply by listening to emotionally intense content, such as radio programs. Furthermore, literature and the performing arts are greatly influenced by this loss of emotional control. Literature, cinema, and theater portray conflicting and violent emotions that fall outside societal norms. However, since these practices exist in fiction, they are accepted without causing abhorrence.

In the 16th century, people craved the visual spectacle of cruelty and the pleasure of witnessing pain and suffering. This craving occurred without any rational justification or disguise as punishment within a disciplinary framework. It took place in a raw, explicit manner, fully validated by the participants (Elias, 1994, p. 201). For example:

In 16th-century Paris, one of the great pleasures of the St. John’s Day festivities (June 24) was to burn one or two dozen cats alive. This ceremony was famous. The crowd would gather, solemn music would be played, and a huge pyre would be erected beneath a kind of gallows. Then a sack or basket containing the cats would be hung from the gallows. The sack or basket would catch fire, the cats would fall onto the pyre and burn to death, while the crowd rejoiced amid a tremendous uproar (Elias, 1994, p. 201).

By 21st-century standards, this is certainly no longer an acceptable spectacle. The mere account of it repulses us and leads us to regard such behavior as "abnormal." This demonstrates long-term changes in personality structure and shows how the civilizing process transforms what was once acceptable into what is now unacceptable.

Thus, according to 21st-century social standards, someone who wishes to gratify their desires in the manner of the 16th century would be considered "abnormal" today, since normative conditioning in our current stage of civilization restricts the expression of pleasure through such acts (Elias, 1994).

In this sense, transposing the discussion to the field of information science reveals that such transformations are reflected in informational processes that record, organize, and disseminate these practices over time. As a social construct, information not only documents cultural phenomena, but also participates in their legitimation, contestation, or re-signification.

As Capurro (2006) argues, information is intrinsically related to ethical and interpretive contexts. It is not neutral but historically situated. Similarly, documentary regimes and discursive practices directly influence what becomes visible or invisible in society, highlighting the role of power in the organization of information (Frohmann, 1994). Furthermore, Buckland (1991) broadens this understanding by considering information as both knowledge and a material object that carries and stabilizes meanings.

How violent or civilized practices are represented in documents, information systems, and media directly influences their visibility and social interpretation. Information Science contributes to the analysis of how information production, mediation, and circulation regimes shape the construction of meanings attributed to culture and barbarism, thereby highlighting the ethical dimension of these processes.

4 CULTURAL PRACTICES OR ACTS OF BARBARISM?

Various cultural practices carry with them elements of emotional unrestraint; in the case of Brazil, specifically, these range from cockfighting and dogfighting to sports, films, festivals, and the arts, all featuring varying degrees of violence, both physical and symbolic. The cultural sphere that serves as an escape from emotional control-as a form of unrestraint that is permitted and legally sanctioned-is vast.

On the one hand, there is the understanding that cultural expressions cannot be prohibited or denied, as they are part of the social fabric of the people and represent a historical phenomenon that reflects memory and ancestry. For those who hold this view, Article 215 of the Federal Constitution guarantees:

Art. 215. The State shall guarantee the full exercise of cultural rights and access to national cultural resources. The state shall also support and encourage the promotion and dissemination of cultural expressions. The State shall protect the expressions of popular, indigenous, and Afro-Brazilian cultures, as well as those of other groups that participate in the national civilizing process (Brazil, 1988, Chapter III, Article 215, Section 1).

On the other hand, some view certain cultural events as acts of cruelty; in the case of animals, one example is the Vaquejada². At this event, animals often suffer broken legs and tails, torn ligaments and blood vessels, and in some cases, their tails are torn off; they also suffer damage to their bone marrow and are constantly subjected to stress.

This viewpoint cites Article 225, Section 1, of the Federal Constitution as its basis for validation:

Art. 225. Everyone has the right to an ecologically balanced environment, a public good essential to a healthy quality of life, and the government and the community have a duty to defend and preserve it for present and future generations.

§ 1 To ensure the effectiveness of this right, it is incumbent upon the government:

VII - to protect fauna and flora, prohibiting, in accordance with the law, practices that endanger their ecological function, cause the extinction of species, or subject animals to cruelty (Brazil, 1988, Chapter VI, Article 225, § 1).

In terms of the human aspect, examples of symbolic violence or the exclusion of minorities include the use of LGBTQIA+³ characters as "comic relief" in cultural events, popular festivals, and the arts in general; the depiction of indigenous cosmologies and Afro-Brazilian religions as folklore or superstition; and depictions considered humorous but tinged with racism, xenophobia, and ableism.

Such manifestations are deemed unconstitutional under Articles 1, 3, and 5 of the Federal Constitution, which establish citizenship, the dignity of the human person, social values, and political pluralism without prejudice based on origin, race, sex, color, age, or other forms of discrimination. These principles ensure the fight against cultural expressions that violate human rights and reinforce discrimination (Brazil, 1988). Articles 215 and 216 also stand out together, ensuring respect for Brazilian cultural diversity and rejecting all forms of cultural or religious discrimination (Brazil, 1988).

Both sides are grounded in legal principles enshrined in the country's most authoritative document: the Federal Constitution. In light of this controversy, it is important to consider what constitutes culture and what constitutes barbarism. Morgan (2005) defines culture as follows:

In its broadest ethnographic sense, culture or civilization is the complex whole that includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, laws, customs, and other capabilities and habits acquired by humans as members of society. The state of culture among various human societies, insofar as it can be investigated according to general principles, is a suitable subject for studying the laws of human thought and action. The uniformity widely permeating civilization can largely be attributed to the uniform action of uniform causes. Its various degrees can be seen as stages of development or evolution, each resulting from prior history and ready to play its own role in shaping future history (Morgan, 2005, p. 31).

Stuart Hall (2006) defines national culture from a perspective that begins with identity and extends to symbols and representations. In his words:

[...] national cultures consist not only of cultural institutions, but also of symbols and representations. A national culture is a discourse - a way of constructing meaning that influences and shapes both our actions and our conception of ourselves (Hall, 2006, p. 50).

Studies in the field of culture are broad, encompassing various dimensions ranging from knowledge, such as beliefs, customs, and laws, to discourses and meanings. Thus, our actions are shaped by culture, and our identity is shaped by the cultural practices that define us. Therefore, our daily practices are, to some extent, cultural.

In reviewing Mattéi’s work, Soczkek (2003, p. 159) presents Mattéi’s concept of barbarism, including what he calls "the barbarism of the subject"-that which is inherent to being-and argues that education, culture, and politics are paradigms of barbarism more than civilization. Thus:

[...] the author develops the idea of the “barbarity of the subject.” This stance implies acknowledging that “barbarity is substantial, and even consubstantial with man, and not an unfortunate accident of history.” The author recognizes barbarism in the exacerbation of the concept of the subject (a process that occurs in modernity), where a noetic epistemology⁴ engenders, as explained in the following chapters of the book, critiques of the educational process, culture, and politics as paradigms of barbarism rather than civilization, as we commonly think.

Thus, barbarism is an individual condition, not the result of sporadic social contexts. It is a human predisposition rather than a consequence. According to the author, even in the modern era, we are subject to barbarism since "civilization and barbarism are two masks, 'adversaries and accomplices, of the same humanity'" (Soczek, 2003, p. 158).

The cultural practices mentioned are undoubtedly cultural elements that shape 21st-century society and hold historical and economic significance. However, situations of violence against animals and humans, both physical and psychological, are part of humanity’s evolution, enabling the development of self-awareness, rationality, and wisdom.

5 ETHICS AND INFORMATION: A FIELD OF TENSIONS

Ethics, as a reflection on human actions and values, creates tension within culture. As Elias (1994) points out, barbarism is not external to civilization but rather one of its internal possibilities. When a cultural practice normalizes physical or symbolic violence, such as festivals or rituals that cause animal or human suffering or folkloric performances that reinforce stereotypes, it reveals profound ethical and political contradictions.

Information science has gradually begun to reflect on the ethical dimensions of the treatment, organization, and dissemination of information (Pereira, Pinheiro, and Souza, 2023). As Capurro (2006) points out, "information ethics" is a field that seeks to understand the impact of the production and use of information on human relations. This understanding aligns with the professional ethics and social responsibility of information professionals and researchers regarding the manipulation and mediation of information, regardless of its medium (Froehlich, 1992).

In the context of cultural and documentary mediation, information science (IS) faces ethical dilemmas, such as how to describe something that is culturally valued by some and considered violent by others. How can we guarantee the right to memory and identity without condoning practices that violate human or environmental rights? How can we promote the critical circulation of cultural information to stimulate reflection rather than mere reproduction? When analyzing these issues, it is important to note that IS must not only serve as a technical process of information transfer but also become an interpretive and ethical act. In this act, the professional acts as an intermediary between different value systems, languages, and worldviews (Almeida Junior, 2009; Guimarães, Pinho, Milani, and Fernández-Molina, 2008).

In this reflection, one of the pillars of IS regarding the representation of information must also be highlighted, given that representation involves constructing meaning and documentary language never reflects a neutral worldview (Frohmann, 1994; Gonzales de Gomez, 1999). Information representation is always interpretive and ideological. The way a practice is described, indexed, or narrated influences its social perception (Buckland, 1991; Hjørland, 2007).

When analyzing and describing cultural practices, such as indigenous festivities and rituals that may involve violence, it is necessary to consider the act of representation critically. The historical, symbolic, and social context must be made explicit so that the treatment of information respects the dignity of the subjects represented and their right to truth and memory (Capurro, 2008).

Conversely, information studies focusing on social memory and forgetting indicate that ethics serve as the backdrop for decisions about what to preserve or omit since information science plays a role in curating, preserving, and constructing memory. However, IS also acts as an agent of forgetting. Therefore, gaps in memory must be understood not merely as failures but as constitutive parts of memory (Le Goff, 1990; Ricoeur, 2007). Thus, the processes of remembering and forgetting constitute social memory. These processes select what gains visibility and what is silenced. This selection is also a political issue because it perpetuates or questions practices that are deemed barbaric (Halbwachs, 1990; Le Goff, 1990).

In Brazil, Guimarães, Pinho, Milani, and Molina (2008), as well as Gonzales de Gomez (2017), emphasize that ethics in IS goes beyond compliance with professional standards to encompass cognitive justice, equitable access, and respect for cultural diversity. Cultural practices involving violence challenge IS by requiring ethical stances in the curation, recording, and dissemination of information about such phenomena.

In this context, information science must balance "social utility," which emphasizes its commitment to making information available for optimal use, with "social responsibility," which entails distancing itself from censorship and discrimination (Guimarães, Pinho, Milani, and Molina, 2008; Pereira, Pinheiro, and Souza, 2023).

Every social formation exhibits a combination of cultural and historical traits, adapting to changes and continuities in conjunctures and structures. Conjunctures are in constant flux and may change frequently because they are moments, contexts, and scenarios. Structures, on the other hand, appear natural, immovable, and durable, as if maintaining their characteristics over time. It is within these structures that "the feelings, worldviews, values, archetypes, and spirit of a people" are shaped (Baylão and Rocha, 2014, p. 4).

The Period of the Abolition of Slavery in Brazil is an example of a conjuncture: a particular historical context aimed at rejecting slavery. However, slavery's roots were deeply embedded in the social structure, which is why overcoming the ills left behind by slavery, such as racism, is so difficult.

To broaden our understanding of social structures, it is helpful to consider the social fact, as established by Durkheim (1977), which is rooted in the social context rather than the individual one. The social fact is supported by the collective consciousness, where heritage-including values, habits, principles, and customs-is stored and transmitted from generation to generation. Individuals find it difficult to break free from the social fact because they are immersed in this structure from birth, a process that solidifies through education and socialization (Baylão and Rocha, 2014).

Thus, the social fact is a set that integrates and articulates ways of acting, thinking, and feeling, conferring distinctive characteristics on groups, communities, and societies (Baylão and Rocha, 2014, p. 4). Despite the power of traditions, societies are not static. Transformations occur as a result of social imperatives. This is because individual consciousnesses are not entirely submissive to social imperatives and may possess relative autonomy depending on the strength of the bonds that structure and organize societal cohesion.

The discussion of the social fact presented by Durkheim (1977) relates directly to the role of professionals responsible for managing, organizing, and curating collections and information services. Collections constitute repositories of collective consciousness, bringing together the values, practices, memories, and traditions that structure social life and are transmitted across generations (Borko, 1968; Hjørland, 2000; Capurro, 2003; Buckland, 2017). Understanding this dynamic reveals that the information and documents in their care are not neutral elements but rather expressions of historical and cultural contexts that shape and are shaped by social groups.

Mendes (2012) highlights Lévinas’s understanding of culture, noting its constantly evolving nature as an open construct, not self-contained but open to new configurations. Furthermore, although there is a communal sense of culture with a collective character, the individual aspect-the individual's subjectivity-prevails over the group. This line of thinking also applies to the ethical question: the individual’s response prevails over that of the collective. Thus, culture provides an environment in which ethics can be realized (Mendes, 2012).

Thus, the regulatory principle of ethics within the institution of culture can never be reduced to a primary norm but rather to a movement-a dynamic stance of returning to the original experience of existence and forming one’s own subjectivity amidst and through difference. This movement is illuminated by experience and rational critique (Mendes, 2012, p. 28).

Cultures that remain entrenched in their collective traditions without opening themselves to exchanges with the present may be lost within the context of civilization. However, if innovation is accepted, cultures can open to one another, achieving assimilation and rebirth (Mendes, 2012).

This is how certain cultural events involving traces of violence can be restructured. In particular, one can reconcile ethics' role as an element capable of steering culture toward more just and humanitarian contexts. Ethics is a way of questioning. It is a philosophical, critical, and reflective inquiry that aims to determine morality, which is oriented toward the meaning and purpose of human life. Ethics and morality should both motivate and guide human actions toward justice (Gonzales de Gomez, 2017, p. 19).

When considering ethics in information science (IS), it becomes apparent that a dialogue is established with other fields, such as communication, administration, library science, archival science, museology, anthropology, law, bioinformatics, and telemedicine (González de Gómez, 2017).

These fields demonstrate that all knowledge stems from a combination of cultural heritage, context, and lived experiences. There is an epistemic unconscious that can influence how we perceive and interpret cultural heritage. A cognitive authority operates without being consciously recognized (González de Gómez, 2017).

Given the emergence of a new way of thinking that integrates nature as a whole without separating humans from nature, Floridi (2017) proposes a macroethics that transcends the human-nature duality to be more comprehensive and inclusive. The ontological basis of this macroethics is the infosphere, which must serve as the foundation for distinguishing right from wrong. Thus, the macroethical principle of an ecology of information must promote the well-being of the infosphere. In the author’s words:

ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), which, for example, have profoundly transformed the informational context in which moral issues arise, have not only revealed new and interesting dimensions of old problems, but also led us to methodologically rethink the very foundations on which our ethical positions are based (Floridi, 2006, p. 2017).

Changes are already taking place in the realm of cultural practices that involve some form of violence. Although festivals and certain cultural traditions remain, as was the case with the rodeos in Taubaté, which were allowed to resume but without the vaquejada or any other activity involving acts of violence against animals (Globo.com, 2025).

Thus, the relationship between IS and ethics, as applied to cultural manifestations that straddle the line between culture and barbarism, is, essentially, also a political issue. The actors involved in this context must develop and promote balanced methodologies that meet these demands without reinforcing inequalities or stigmas, or erasing practices legitimized by tradition that raise contemporary moral questions.

Furthermore, the balance between tradition and transformation, highlighted in the text, reflects the very work of professionals operating in this context, who must reconcile the management, preservation, and updating of information products and services amid social change and new informational demands. In this sense, by mediating access to information, these professionals can contribute to both maintaining social cohesion and strengthening individual autonomy, enabling new interpretations, practices, and discourses to emerge through interaction with the information heritage.

Evidently, changes are already taking place in cultural practices involving violence. Although some festivals and cultural traditions persist, such as the resumption of rodeos in Taubaté without the vaquejada or other violent activities (Globo.com, 2025), changes are occurring.

Thus, the relationship between culture and ethics, as it applies to cultural manifestations that straddle the line between culture and barbarism, is also essentially a political issue. Those involved must develop and promote balanced methodologies that meet these demands without reinforcing inequalities or stigmas, or erasing practices legitimized by tradition that raise contemporary moral questions.

The balance between tradition and transformation highlighted in the text reflects the work of professionals in this field. They must reconcile the management, preservation, and updating of information products and services amid social change and new informational demands. By mediating access to information, these professionals can help maintain social cohesion and strengthen individual autonomy. This enables new interpretations, practices, and discourses to emerge from interaction with the information heritage.

6 CONCLUSION

This article explores the following question: How can IS contribute to understanding, mediating, and representing cultural practices that contain a certain element of barbarism? To arrive at this answer, it was initially noted that the civilizing process is constantly evolving and can control emotions through various means: by institutionalizing practices, such as in popular events (festivities and rituals); by keeping practices under the yoke of culture; and by creating contexts in which barbaric practices are tolerated, such as cinema, fighting, games, theater, and literature.

Despite the legitimization of cultural practices that include elements of barbarism, some practices raise questions about their legitimacy. An example in Brazil is the vaquejada, which is a constant topic of debate and has even led to legal disputes, since the right to culture, as well as animal welfare, is guaranteed by the supreme social regulation, the Brazilian Federal Constitution.

Faced with this impasse, it is asserted, based on the concept of the civilizing process, that cultural practices involving violence against humans or animals must be curtailed. If, in the past, cockfights and dogfights-as well as racist and prejudiced representations-were socially accepted but are no longer tolerated today, and are sometimes even prohibited as cultural practices, we can look forward to a new era in which emotions will be even more controlled, and the taste for violence-whether through active participation, as a spectator, or as a listener-will be a thing of the past.

Secondly, the study demonstrates that, in general, the application of ethics in handling information and collections containing records of cultural practices involving violence is a field of deep tensions, where tradition, identity, and morality intertwine. It became evident that Information Science plays a strategic role in this debate by offering tools for representation, curation, and cultural mediation in studies and information practices grounded in ethical and responsible principles, thereby contributing to the construction of citizenship.

To this end, the first step is to recognize that information is not neutral and that every act of recording or classifying involves moral choices, making the application of ethics indispensable to prevent the reproduction of barbarism under the guise of culture. From this perspective, it is necessary to consider that if we maintain cultural practices with a certain element of barbarism-without questioning, without reflection, without understanding what culture is and what barbarism is, what can be accepted and what must be eliminated-we will stagnate the civilizing process. Similarly, ethics in IS becomes an “ethics of memory,” committed to combining the right to remember the dignity of the subjects represented with the right to truth and the duty to understand forgetting.

Finally, it is believed that IS, by articulating ethics, social commitment, and culture, can contribute to an informational practice committed to dignity and respect for diverse conceptions of humanity and the cosmos.

This article explores the following question: How can cultural anthropology contribute to understanding, mediating, and representing cultural practices that contain an element of barbarism? Initially, it was noted that the civilizing process is constantly evolving and can control emotions through various means, such as institutionalizing practices in popular events (festivities and rituals), keeping practices under the yoke of culture, and creating contexts in which barbaric practices are tolerated, including cinema, fighting, games, theater, and literature.

Despite the legitimization of cultural practices containing elements of barbarism, some practices raise questions about their legitimacy. In Brazil, for example, the vaquejada is a constant topic of debate. It even leads to legal disputes because the rights to culture and to animal welfare are guaranteed by the supreme social regulation document: the Brazilian Federal Constitution.

In light of this impasse, based on the concept of the civilizing process, it is asserted that cultural practices involving violence against humans or animals must be curtailed. Just as cockfights, dogfights, and racist and prejudiced representations were once socially accepted but are now prohibited, one can hope for a new era in which the taste for violence, whether through participation, spectating, or listening, will be a thing of the past.

Secondly, the study shows that applying ethics to information and collections containing records of violent cultural practices is generally a deeply fraught field where tradition, identity, and morality intertwine. Information Science was found to play a strategic role in this debate by offering tools for representation, curation, and cultural mediation for ethical and responsible studies and information practices, thereby contributing to the construction of citizenship.

The first step is recognizing that information is not neutral and that every act of recording or classifying involves moral choices. Thus, the application of ethics is indispensable to prevent the reproduction of barbarism under the guise of culture. From this perspective, we must consider that maintaining cultural practices with an element of barbarism without questioning, reflecting, or understanding culture and barbarism, and what can and must be accepted or eliminated, will impede the civilizing process. Similarly, ethics in IS becomes an "ethics of memory," committed to combining the right to remember, the dignity of the subjects represented, the right to truth, and the duty to understand forgetting.

Finally, IS is believed to contribute to informational practices committed to dignity and respect for diverse conceptions of humanity and the cosmos by articulating ethics, social commitment, and culture.

• 1
  “The Civilizing Process,” an influential work in sociology and Elias’s most important book, was first published in two volumes in 1939.
• 2
  A cultural festival in the Northeast that dates back to the 17th century and boosts the economy of several states in the region.
• 3
  This refers to the diversity of gender identities and sexual orientations, including Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgender/Transvestites, Queer, Intersex, Asexuals, and the “+” for all other identities not explicitly listed.
• 4
  Noetics focuses on understanding how human beings are able to think and reflect on the world.
• Funding:
  Not applicable.
• Approval:
  Not applicable.
• Statement on the use of AI tools:
  The authors declare that no AI tools were used in the writing of this manuscript.
• Image:
  Retrieved from the Lattes platform.
• Translation:
  S. Iacovacci Translation Service.
• JITA:
  AD. Philosophy of information
• SDG:
  4. Quality education
• Article submitted to the similarity checker

Acknowledgments:

Not applicable.

Availability of data and materials:

Not applicable.

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Edited by

• Editor:
  Gildenir Carolino Santos https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4375-6815

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  03 Aug 2026
• Date of issue
  2026

History

• Received
  29 Nov 2025
• Accepted
  18 May 2026
• Published
  27 May 2026