Abstract

VALLEJO, Gustavo. The "New Man" and the Ministry of Education and Health of Rio de Janeiro (1930-1945). Hist. Soc. [online]. 2022, n.43, pp.12-37.  Epub Aug 22, 2022. ISSN 0121-8417.  https://doi.org/10.15446/hys.n43.87641.

After its advent in the United Kingdom at the turn of the 20th Century, Eugenics started to transcend its borders in an unusual way. Its diversity became particularly noticeable during the 1930s when its expansion in South America revealed precise programs for integration into international networks. The impact exerted by Italian Biotypology and French Biocracy is inscribed in this framework, movements that fed Latin American Eugenics, providing normative models, and creating through the "new man" an exemplary stereotype for regenerating modern societies. The theories of its main promoters, Nicola Pende and Alexis Carrel, were disseminated in the region through biotypological institutes and the studies which they carried out, on the one hand, and through the unusual popularity reached by a book, on the other. So, this paper studies some aspects of the reception of both theories in the creation of the Ministry of Education and Health of Rio de Janeiro, which should embody, materially and symbolically, the ideas of Eugenics and a stereotype of the Brazilian man.

Keywords : Eugenics; Stereotype; Man; Biopolitics; Biotypology; Masculinity; Racism; Fascism; Architecture; Urban Planning; Brazilian Architecture; Cultural Exchange; Sculpture; Urban Art; Alexis Carrel; Le Corbusier; Brazil; Italy; Nicola Pende; 20^th Century.

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