To sanitize is to eugenize: the “preventive” eugenics of Belisário Penna at the service of sanitation in Brazil, 1920-1930

 Nov 29, 2022

The sanitation of Brazil proposed by the physician and sanitarian Belisário Penna (1868-1939) drew on a variety of interpretations of Brazilian society, including a move away from racial determinism, a belief in social medicine, the centralization of health service administration and the sanitation of people’s habits and behaviors.

In the article To sanitize is to eugenize: the “preventive” eugenics of Belisário Penna at the service of sanitation in Brazil, 1920-1930, Leonardo Dallacqua de Carvalho, researcher at Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Maranhão, linked to the regional science and technology development program and the graduate program in History at State University of Maranhão, addresses two fundamental concepts for his thinking: “Brazilian race” and “preventive” eugenics. The way in which Penna saw the Brazilian racial issue was fundamental to adhere to the eugenic conception combined with social medicine and its project of “health awareness.” The discussion about race brought Penna closer to “preventive” eugenics, whose reformist proposal was in line with the idea of the absolution of race.

Thus, the defense of an eugenics classified as “preventive” established a coherence for a social reform project through the sanitation defended by Penna.

Penna moved away from different forms of determinism, preferring to focus on what he called the “accursed trinity:” disease, illiteracy, and alcoholism. For the sanitarian (1868-1939), alcohol and syphilis would cause the degeneration of the population and would justify the interference of the State in private life. This conception of eugenics suggested making improvements to the environment and fighting racial poisons in order to improve heredity and bring forth a new level of population through state assistance.

História, Ciências, Saúde-Manguinhos, Volume: 29, Issue: 3, Published: 2022 Eugenics in HCS-Manguinhos: Gini’s thoughts on eugenics Although Gini is best remembered today as a statistician and demographer, the paper argues that his interest in population statistics was entirely subordinated to his passion for eugenics. Eugenics in Mediterranean Europe and Latin America HCSM’s new issue explores eugenic thinking and practice beyond the English-speaking world. Eugenics and sterilization in the United States, 1920 – 1950 Alexandra Minna Stern and her team at the University of Michigan reviews medical records to investigate ethnic and gender bias in sterilization policies. Eugenics and sterilization in the United States In an interview to HCS-Manguinhos, Alexandra Stern, University of Michigan, talks about her initial findings related to ethnic and gender bias in sterilization policies. Between Germanic and Latin eugenics: Portugal, 1930-1960 Richard Mark Cleminson discusses the participation of Portuguese eugenicists in “Latin eugenics”. Brazilian eugenics and its international connections Through an examination of Renato Kehl’s and Edgard Roquette-Pinto’s eugenic projects, the paper investigates their contact with the international thinking in the field. Latin eugenics in a transnational contextThis thematic issue of HCS-Manguinhos revisits the concept of Latin eugenics in different historical circumstances.

Eugenics and education in Brazil Jerry Dávila, of the University of Illinois, analyzes the influence of eugenics in Brazilian public policies for education.

Our latest issue is available online It features topics such as knowledge of healing practices and plants, the circulation of medical knowledge in South America, mental hygiene in early childhood, the Gaceta Médica de México and scientific medicine, eugenics, and syphilis in Spain, among other themes.