Discurso Eugênico na I Conferência Nacional de Educação (1927, Curitiba/PR – Brasil)

Abstract

The present research aimed to problematize the articulation between the eugenic discourse and the productivity of the preemptive action of education, in order to avoid the appearance of abnormalities that may harm the social body. It can be seen that the educational question has unfolded around the degeneracy, marked in a certain way the individuals in which the physical and / or intellectual commitments did not allow to show the results of the education received. In order to better understand these nuances, I investigated different articles, dissertations and theses on the subject. In addition, I also analyzed how these eugenic discourses circulated during the First National Conference of Education held in the city of Curitiba, Paraná, in 1927. This event was conceived by the Brazilian Association of Education (founded in 1924) two years later, the I Brazilian Congress of Eugenics (1929) took place. To a certain extent, such debates on education have instigated the need to organize something of this magnitude for the systematization of eugenics in Brazil, which demonstrates the overlap between both themes (eugenics and education) in this sociopolitical context. In addition to the eugenic question that appeared transversally in many theses, concepts related to body care, marriage, maternity, addictions, morals, sex education and offspring in the light of eugenics and biology also recurrent in the material. This clearly demonstrates the imbrication between what the eugenics proposed at the time for the improvement of the individual and the social body and what the educators advocated in that context for this very purpose.