This essay analyzes the current state of the field of history of health and medicine in Latin America and proposes questions and areas for further investigation. Using a variety of databases to identify relevant historiographical sources from across the Americas, the authors focus on a range of subjects that have substantially engaged contemporary historians while opening up still more research avenues. These include the health of diverse populations; new perspectives on religion and on women’s health; the historicizing of health systems, health politics, and social medicine; and the local-global nexus in Latin American health and medicine. These themes both draw from and extend beyond those addressed in pathbreaking works such as Nancy Leys Stepan’s Beginnings of Brazilian Science. Among the most stimulating developments of recent years are the incorporation of interdisciplinary perspectives on historical analysis, and the elucidation of regional patterns of and preoccupations with the interrelations among state, society, and medicine. The proliferation of historical knowledge regarding the health and medical landscape of Latin America has made this one of the most dynamic fields in historical scholarship today. The authors conclude by discussing emerging methodological and theoretical challenges, including Cold War studies and postcolonialism, and by reflecting on the shared scholarly and political responsibilities of Latin Americanists.

No abstract

The demographers who organized the 1940 census of Peru portrayed the increasingly mixed-race Peruvian population as indicative of the breaking down of cultural barriers to the emergence of a robust Peruvian identity, a process that, they claimed, would lead to greater national development. This paper analyzes the ways in which demographers constructed cultural heterogeneity as a potential national asset. This reveals how scientific knowledge of miscegenation affected the formation of a nationalist project in the second half of the twentieth century, and also how demographers' ideological commitments to socialism shaped scientific practice.

Adding to the burgeoning study of medicine and science in Latin America, this important book offers a comprehensive historical perspective on the highly contentious issues of sexual and reproductive health in an important Andean nation. Raul Necochea Lopez approaches family planning as a historical phenomenon layered with medical, social, economic, and moral implications. At stake in this complex mix were new notions of individual autonomy, the future of gender relations, and national prosperity.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Resumen Augusta García Platas murió tras un aborto clandestino en Ayacucho en 1946. Este ensayo, basado en materiales del Archivo Histórico de Ayacucho, da cuenta del proceso criminal que se abrió para determinar los responsables de su muerte. A pesar de que sindicaron a ciertos individuos como culpables directos de provocar el aborto, las autoridades judiciales consideraban que la causa de fondo de la muerte de la joven había sido el abandono por parte de quienes debían velar por su salud física y moral. Este caso nos brinda la oportunidad de esclarecer las estrategias que los implicados usaban para defenderse de acusaciones criminales. Además, nos ayuda a entender las diversas deficiencias del Poder Judicial peruano de mediados del siglo XX.