Doctoral Dissertation Research:The Institutionalization of Medicine in Rio de Janeiro, 1850-1930

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the Brazilian state's institutionalization of medicine through its increased criminalization of traditional medical practices relating to women's healthcare. Three questions are central to explaining institutionalization via criminalization: what was the changing institutional nature of the medical profession, specifically the field of obstetrics and gynecology? How did the state?s push towards medical institutionalization affect the Brazilian population?s access to healthcare, in particular women?s access to pre- and post-natal medical services? And how and why did the state monitor, control, and ultimately, criminalize traditional medicine practices, most notably midwifery? Although gender continues to illuminate analysis of the legal history of medicine mediciine, legal historical scholarship has yet to explain the role of gender in medicine across places and times. This dissertation seeks to fill that gap in late-nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The actions and writings of both the state and licensed doctors reveals the processes of the institutionalization of medicine. Whether the law and rhetoric actually increased or decreased women?s access to affordable pre- and post-natal healthcare is the focus of analysis. The project concludes by explaining how the criminalization of traditional midwifery practices contributed to institutionalization. The legal jurisdiction over the practice of medicine contributed to socioeconomic changes during turn-of-the-century Rio de Janeiro, changing governance patterns, and creating a modern medical infrastructure. These changes included structural inequalities in the class- and race-based society. By using previously untapped court cases, medical theses and journals, public health records, criminal law, and census data, this project is the first study of the intersection of healthcare, gender, race, and the law in late-nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro. Health care inequalities remain a cross-national concern today, and this study will provide a contribution to ongoing discussions of how inequalities have been created and continued.