The thermal spa town: the science of the water and modern sociability between 1839 a 1931

• Grant number: 13/50462-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants - Publications - Books published in Brazil
• Start date: September 01, 2013
• End date: December 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Modern and Contemporary History
• Principal Investigator: Edgar Salvadori de Decca
• Grantee: Edgar Salvadori de Decca
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The thermal spa town: water science and modern sociability between 1839 and 1931 is the result of the master thesis developed at the History Department of IFCH/UNICAMP, advised by teacher Edgar Salvadori de Decca. This research analyzed the origins of Brazilian thermal spa towns. It had as reference the medicinal waters symbolic construction process linked to modern sociability emergence and experience in our country. Starting from the first thermal spa facility built in Latin America in 1931, in Poços de Caldas city, south of Minas Gerais state, the research aimed to understand men involvement and distancing towards their own emotions in the natural environment. It was from a very peculiar perspective, centered in Norbert Elias civilized process theory, that the hot and sulfur springs were turned into this paper historical study object. The study understood them as an intense civilizing process in the construction of towns as well as a direct conditioning and modeling instrument of the individual adaptation to specific ways of behaving, in a time-space in which it has become the central element. (AU)