Abstract
The anthropological study of the State, a strong ethnographic tradition in Brazil, is one of the areas responsible for the wide dissemination of Veena Das' work in the country. Based on this observation, the present article revisits two characters of “Textures of the Ordinary” and argues that their stories summarize some of the most central issues in Das' contribution to the study of State practices and processes. It also argues that the stories of these same two characters allow the author to broaden her contribution to this field in two ways: through analytical categories “texture of the law” and the “politics of the ordinary” (especially productive with regards to the State and its ambivalences); and the theoretical and methodological hints and suggestions Das’ offers up to the reader.
Keywords:
State; Texture of the law; Politics of the ordinary; Ethnography