Biology, nature and the Republic in Brazil in the writings of Mello Leitão (1922-1945)

Abstract

The first decades of the 20th century saw biology become a very specific field of knowledge, and also become characterized by the political use of this knowledge. Initiatives taken in the scientific divulgation of biology were decisive in that context. The activities of scientists at the Museu Nacional of Rio de Janeiro stood out as they favored the construction of a strong and centralized state. The present analysis focuses on the scientific practices of the arachnologist Cândido Mello Leitão (1886-1948), a renowned scientist and author in his time. He was intensely engaged in the scientific life, with great dedication to scientific divulgation, mainly to the systematization of a certain view of animal life and nature as the starting point for a defense of authoritarian political points of view.