The republics counterpoint: Raimundo Nina Rodrigues and the epidemic madness of Canudos (1897)

• Grant number: 16/03376-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: December 01, 2016
• End date: November 30, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of Brazil
• Agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Ana Lúcia Lana Nemi
• Grantee: Bruno de Oliveira Mastrantonio
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 11/14275-6 - Education and health among the public and private: the experience of complex HSP / SPDM / EPM-UNIFESP (1956-2010), AP.JP

Abstract

The proclamation of the Republic in Brazil intensified an assimilation process of ideas of progress and modernity, due to intellectual and scientific currents that arrived in Brazilian ground to be seen as exemplars models of civilization. During the long XIX century, aged and fresh knowledges pursue his legitimation within the scientific parameters, resignifying the medicine practices and suggest a scientific view about the society.Raimundo Nina Rodrigues (1862-1906) was one of those intellectuals in that moment, who had his name associated to the formulation of anthropology, forensic medicine and psychiatry in Brazil. Although his life was short, his scientific production was broad. Among the various fields who served, this project highlights his theorization of what he called "epidemic madness", an attempt to understand religious phenomena he witnessed in his time.One of the main works of the author in this field was A loucura epidêmica de Canudos published in 1897. From it, would be search to analyse the author's intent within the context of debates about race, pathology and predisposition to madness, besides the possibility of an epidemic of brain pathologies held in Brazil under the influence of European scientific trends, as also evaluate the articulation of this theory with the national reality (AU)