Consciousness and enlightenment in the Boletim de Eugenia (1929-1933): Rethinking the concept of eugenic education in Brazil

Abstract

This article analyzes the concept of eugenic education in the Boletim de Eugenia (1929-1933), the biggest specialized newspaper in the science of racial improvement and the main means of scientific racism's dissemination in Brazil. Edited in Rio de Janeiro by the doctor and pharmacist Renato Kehl between 1929 and 1931, its direction was assumed from 1932 by the professors of the Escola Superior de Agricultura “Luiz de Queiroz” (ESALQ) Octavio Domingues and Salvador de Toledo Piza Júnior. Besides changing the periodical's characteristics, losing the aspect of a propaganda newspaper, and assuming the format of a scientific journal, the two renowned geneticists from Piracicaba scientifically supported Kehl's Mendelian eugenics, ensuring the continuity and radicalization of his project. Taking as a theoretical-methodological framework documentary research in dialogue with Critical Theory, we investigate the mobilization and the interrelation between the concepts of consciousness and enlightenment in the articles published in the Boletim de Eugenia. We found that the concept of eugenic education was presented in an ambiguous and contradictory way in these texts, reflecting the broad sense in which the term was structured by Francis Galton, but also how the notions of enlightenment and eugenic consciousness were interpreted by the journal's directors. We conclude that the term eugenic education, used in a generalizing form in the historiography of eugenics, is insufficient for a critical understanding of the narrow and broad meanings of education developed from Galton to the most radical members of the Brazilian eugenic movement.