Zero hour of eugenics in Argentina: Disputes and ideologies surrounding the emergence of a scientific field, 1916-1932

Abstract

From the 1930s until the end of the Second World War, Count Keyserling’s statement that “the hour of eugenics is at hand” was used to champion ideas and practices that Nancy Stepan argues were shared by different Latin American countries. We focus on the period prior to that, a sort of zero hour of eugenics in Argentina, which began institutionalizing in 1910 and emerged as a new scientific field. This period was marked by intra-and interdisciplinary tensions, a struggle to monopolize scientific authority, and dialogues between ideology and power in which a viscous type of eugenics was inscribed, whose initial polyphony lasted until 1932.