The “fight against death:” bodies, brazilian modernity, and a history of old age, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, 1930s

Abstract

The way old age was depicted during the 1930s, in Brazilian modernity, is investigated. A historical study was conducted using as its sources newspapers and magazines published in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, as well as medical periodicals. It showed that the particularities and contradictions of Brazilian modernity contributed to a variety of representations of old age. The analysis of the documentary corpus failed to reveal a homogenous description of old age, but identified a considerable increase in the power of scientific and medical knowledge about behaviors considered adequate with regard to bodies in the 1930s.