Abstract

MARTINEZ LONDONO, Juliana. Antivenereal fight in Antioquia during the late 19th and early 20th centuries: a moral question. Iatreia [online]. 2008, vol.21, n.4, pp.426-433. ISSN 0121-0793.

This article, based on a review of secondary bibliographic sources, aims at defining the ways in which the antivenereal fight in Antioquia, Colombia, during the late 19th and early 20^th centuries was, as part of the hygiene-based approach, really a fight against immorality. In its ethical and cultural dimensions, the regional project included a modernizing proposal, adjusted to fit the puritan moral promoted by the Church and carried out by doctors. Thus began a fight against sexually transmitted diseases based on illustrating the popular communities: sexuality was to be reserved to the familiar milieu, and populations in which venereal diseases appeared should be morally rejected. In this way, the medical scientific speech judged the actions of the popular segments of the community. At the same time, medical doctors entered the social scene with the power conferred by their moral hyerarchy.

Keywords : Antivenereal fight; Hygienics; Morality; Sexuality.

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