Degeneration, criminality and hereditary alcoholism in Colombia, first half of the 20th century

Abstract

This article analyzes how medical discourse objectified alcoholism as a “morbid state”, closely linked to criminality and mental illness, based on some medical theses, scientific articles and debates produced during the first three decades of the 20th century in Colombia. The appropriation of the theory of degeneration allowed physicians, hygienists and criminologists to understand alcoholism as a pathology, an abnormality, an instinct, and an innate addiction that produced fatal effects on the population and its generations. A discourse that allowed us to evaluate and intervene the difference in a historical moment especially concerned with human capital as part of the country’s progress.