In favor of a eugenic nation

hygiene, race and national identity in the Brazilian eugenics movement (1917-1927)

Abstract

This article analyses eugenic thought and the way that the Brazilian eugenics movement was organized between 1910 and 1920, when the physician and eugenicist Renato Kehl started the campaign of divulgation of eugenics in Brazil. I pay special attention to the association between eugenics, hygiene and neo Lamarckian concepts, as well as to the relation between eugenics and the debates on race and national identity. I argue that Brazilian eugenics, during this period, was characterized by a “preventative eugenics” model whose aim was to enhance the image of Brazilian nationality and place the country once again in the international scenario.