Progeny of Progress: Child-Centered Policymaking and NationalIdentity Construction in Brazil, 1922-1954 Open Access
Maes, Cari Williams (2011)
Abstract
In the early twentieth century, the confluence of high infant mortality and the drive to define national identity drew elites' attention to Brazilian children as objects of health and social welfare reform, as well as embodied symbols of progress and development at the level of the body politic. Circles of intellectuals, policymakers, and doctors emerged to address the unique challenges of crafting a healthy and productive generation of Brazilian citizens. Ideas and practices formulated by these elites led to the foundation of federal, state, and municipal level institutions centered upon the National Children's Department (1940). Using state authority, this small group of elites attempted to disseminate prescriptions for child rearing, health, and family life to all corners of Brazil. They collaborated with federal administrators to craft Brazilian national character based on images of healthy, well-parented, and productive children. Child-centered nation-making and public health campaigns became key mechanisms in the state's attempts to engender development, propel modernization, and prescribe social and cultural behaviors. Brazilian officials, philanthropists, and health professionals relied on puericultura as a central discursive and policy platform. Pro-child advocates spread puericultural practices through various public initiatives including print media, exhibitions, radio programs, and educational campaigns. These elites were particularly concerned with the hygenization and health of children's bodies, which was deemed necessary for their eventual contributions as "colonizers" and "immigrants" in settling and cultivating Brazil's interior. Getúlio Vargas' regime (1930-1945) bolstered the formulation of child health and welfare initiatives that aimed to unite, modernize, and develop Brazil through artful and scientific child-rearing.
Table of Contents
Chapter Page
Introduction……………………………………………………………………..1
Chapter I: Brazil's 'Century of the Child': The Emergence
and the Evolution of Child-Focused Politics,
Medicine, and Development in the Twentieth Century………………………..39
Chapter II: "Gods in the Hands of Science:"
Puericulture Initiatives and
the Modernization of Child-Focused Public Health.…………………………...83
Chapter III: Discourse into Action:
Puericulture Posts and the Mapping of
Child Health and Welfare Services on the Brazilian Landscape..…………….158
Chapter IV: From "Stepchildren of the State"
to the Brazilians of Tomorrow: The Foundation,
Programs, and Legacy of
Brazil's National Children's Department……………………………………...204
Chapter V:"Our Best Immigrants:" Child-Centered Development,
Agricultural Education, and Images of National Identity…………………….255
Chapter VI: Getúlio Vargas: Reflections on the
"Friend of Children" and His Era……………………………………………..312
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….351
Sources Consulted…………………………………………………………….363
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