"Hygiene" in Dispute: A Concept in Circulation Between France and Brazil at the Turn of the 20th Century

• Grant number: 25/02324-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: September 01, 2025
• End date: February 28, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - Political Theory
• Principal Investigator: Bernardo Ricupero
• Grantee: João Pedro Gomes Balanco
• Supervisor: Ilana Zelmanowicz
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Centre de Recherche Médecine, Sciences, Santé, Santé Mentale, Société (Cermes3), France
• Associated to the scholarship: 24/03934-9 - Hygiene in Dispute: anti-vaccinism, rhetoric, and politics in the context of the Vaccine Revolt (1903-1908), BP.MS

Abstract

This research aims to reconstruct the sanitary debate, particularly concerning mandatory vaccination, regarding the circulation and importation of the Pasteurian paradigm in the city of Rio de Janeiro during the context of the Vaccine Revolt (1904). We adopt a transnational perspective between France and Brazil. The general hypothesis posits that the concept of "hygiene", institutionalized by the Brazilian government, underwent rhetorical instrumentalization. When appropriated by the opposition, it took on the meaning of criticism toward sanitary measures and resistance to the effects of the Pasteurian Revolution in public health policies. The specific hypothesis is that the Brazilian Positivist Apostolate and Church (IAPB), an association opposing mandatory vaccination, developed an anti-Pasteurian medical doctrine as a means to translate positivism into a Brazilian context rooted in national issues. This allowed it to go beyond merely reproducing the orthodox positivism of Auguste Comte. Since this study focuses on the circulation of ideas, particularly the concept of "hygiene", the research internship at the Centre de Recherche, Médecine, Sciences, Santé, Santé Mentale et Société (Cermes3) will allow us to explore various primary and secondary sources concerning the establishment of "public hygiene" (hygiene publica) as a Pasteurian science in the 20th century. We will conduct documentary analysis on materials linked to the Pasteur Mission in Brazil in the Pasteur Institute Archive, as well as on letters and pamphlets from the IAPB housed at Maison Auguste Comte. Lastly, research on primary and secondary sources will also be carried out at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BnF) and the libraries of Cermes3 and the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM).