MIASMAS AND MICROBES, SENTENCES AND FAVELAS

THE HYGIENIST MOVEMENT IN RIO DE JANEIRO DURING THE FIRST REPUBLIC

Abstract

In Rio de Janeiro, the favelas historically occupied by the poor classes have an intrinsic relationship with the bourgeois elite that lives at the foot of the hills. Modernity, urbanization, health, hygiene, real estate speculation, the abolition of slavery and class struggle: everything mixes together with the residents and fragile hovels, and is presented in the irregular and steep streets. The public powers promoted the expansion of the favelas at the same time that they launched their stereotyped readings to the tops of the hills, which remain in the social imagination to this day. Based on this, this article aims to present, in general terms, a historiographical discussion regarding the impacts of the hygienist discourse on the urban and social configuration of Rio de Janeiro during the First Republic, highlighting the changes in the ways of living and living of the poor and black women from the then federal capital.