Knowledge, power and embodiment: the biopolitics of smallpox's eradication

Author(s)

Jonatan Jackson Sacramento

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
• Defense date: 2018-02-27

Examining board members

Heloísa André Pontes; Maria Conceição da Costa; Nara Margareth Silva Azevedo

• Advisor: Heloísa André Pontes

Abstract

The aim of this work is the analysis of the Smallpox Eradication Campaign in Brazil between the 1960s and 1970s, based on the understanding of the processes of knowledge formulation and epidemiological protocols on the disease and the implementation of a national epidemiological surveillance system. Starting from the triad of knowledge, powers and embodiment, the work is divided into three parts: In the first one, based on the analysis of the documentation produced on the subject and the specific bibliography, I argue that the implementation of the epidemiological surveillance actions, together with the bifurcated needle and the lyophilized vaccine, were essential in the process of smallpox eradication in Brazil. Moreover, based on the analysis of the trajectory of the Brazilian health professionals who participated in the campaign, it shows how gender relations were materialized in the public health actions of the period, as well as in the technologies used in such processes. The second part, dedicated to the analysis of institutional relations in the context of the eradication of smallpox, seeks to show how the Campaign was an opportune moment for the consolidation of the intellectual trajectories of Brazilian health professionals at national and international level, as well as re-locating the country in the framework of international sanitarism. Finally, the third part is devoted to thinking how smallpox has been experienced by those who have had direct contact with it, especially the sick and caregivers. The first disease to be eradicated in the history of humanity, the Smallpox Eradication Campaign was a decisive moment in the conformation of the health institutions and practices of contemporary Brazil and an essay for what was to be consolidated as the Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS) (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 15/21537-8 - Knowledge, power and embodiment in the smallpox eradication campaign - Brazil, 1960-1980
• Grantee: Jonatan Jackson Sacramento
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master