"Nossos filhos não são cobaias": Objectification of subjects and field saturation: effects of the Zika epidemic

Abstract

We decided to write this article in four hands for one simple reason: to present two sides of the same story, a story of research during the Zika epidemic. To that extent, not only do we expose two experiences as researchers in anthropology about the Zika virus epidemic, but we aim to point out how these two experiences and feelings reveal in some way a system activated through this specific context that interlocks scientific discoveries, international funding, competition of scholars and institutions, ethnographic field with women, vulnerable children and health institutions, trajectories of biological materials, collaborations - sometimes asymmetric - between the 'South and North' of the world. In doing so we hope to reveal a portrait of science in the making. We propose to reflect on two different levels: 1 / our practices as researchers in anthropology in times of crisis and emergency, and 2 / the various meanings of the center-periphery/researcher-fieldwork participants relationships in the social study of health.