Dehumanization in the Stereotypes of Indigenous People and Gypsies

ABSTRACT We analyzed, in two studies carried out in Sergipe and Alagoas, the dehumanization of Gypsies and Indians. A total of 678 male and female subjects participated. In the first study 378 non-Indians from five cities in Sergipe and Alagoas collaborated, 104 of them living close to the only indigenous tribe in Sergipe. The second involved 300 non-gypsies, 153 of them living close to Gypsy communities. The studies consisted of individual interviews inquiring about social representations and neutral collective beliefs about Gypsies and Indigenous People. We found that indigenous people were represented as exotics and invisible, and neutral collective beliefs or moral exclusion predominated. In relation to gypsies, the dehumanization process was more blatant, predominating moral exclusion and delegitimization.