This article discusses the similarities between certain knowledges and practices focused on “improving the race” in Colombia from 1920-1930, showing how they can be located within a framework defined by historiography as the “Latin American eugenic movement.” The term “social hygiene” appears in some Colombian medical texts during this period to describe the improvement of a fraction of the population defined as “degenerate.” This study contributes to discussion of the need to rethink “racial improvement” strategies as local, heterogeneous, diverse problems.
CITATION STYLE
Vásquez, M. F. (2018). Degeneration and improvement of the race: Social higiene or eugenics? Colombia, 1920-1930. Historia, Ciencias, Saude - Manguinhos, 25, 145–158. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0104-59702018000300009
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