UNDER THE CARE OF THE SUS: AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE CARE EXPERIENCE IN THE AGRESTE REGION OF PERNAMBUCO

Abstract

This essay presents a preliminary discussion of a work in progress centered on an anthropologist's experience of care within the Unified Health System (SUS, as in Portuguese). Data were collected between March and June 2026 in the municipalities of Belo Jardim, Arcoverde, and Recife (Pernambuco) and Maragogi (Alagoas). The researcher conducted observations at Emergency Care Units and hospitals. The text addresses the methodological challenges of a study conducted by a researcher who is a SUS user, while also highlighting innovative possibilities for care practices within health services. In the ethnography, the user and the anthropologist negotiated distances, drew upon memories, and compared lived experience with literature. The sudden onset of adolescence, the encounter with the SUS, and the body under care became intertwined in an ethnography being transcribed in imaginary drafts—fueled by a sentiment that seemed unable to distinguish the user from the anthropologist. That is where my anthropology comes from. It is through the experience of care that one grasps the SUS. Observe, up close, the act of letting someone die. It leaves marks. An imaginary takes shape. Meanings of health policies settle within the body itself.