Please use categories or tags when writing your blog posts. Use categories to indicate the week (Week 3 or Week 10 etc.), and tags for key concepts or topics covered.
Supplementary Readings Citizenship and Rights in the New Republics
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Empowering Women: Land and Property Rights in Latin America
Carmen Diana Deere, Magdalena León de Leal
Page 6 paragraph 2
This excerpt discusses specifically the rise of feminism and indigenous movements in Latin America during the later decades of the twentieth century. The authors main goal is to discuss the rights of women specifically tied to property rights. Earlier in the text the authors compare the older systems of property rights established during colonial rule in the Americas. Women had fewer rights and men held the majority of power and property. The authors using what little data is available determine as best as they can that women though doing a large amount of work in society and being roughly half the population own roughly one percent of the total resources. This disparity in property ownership is tied directly to the limits that women have in regard to rights. The authors also mention how in the wave of indigenous protests in the later part of the twentieth century caused many to think in how the two, women’s rights and indigenous rights. Indigenous people campaigned for access to traditional lands and communal ownership of these lands. It is debated whether these indigenous campaigns could help or hinder women’s property rights.
I selected this source because it highlights two groups both campaigning for rights in Latin America but with somewhat separate goals and ideals. The feminist group is looking to mainly advocate for and secure stronger property rights for women in Latin America. The indigenous rights groups are advocating mainly for access to their traditional lands and communal ownership of said lands. These two goals are not necessarily mutually achievable. Many tribal groups may not recognize ownership of property by women, and private ownership of land (male or female ownership) goes contrary to the communal ownership goal of many indigenous groups. This text does not specifically relate to the years of the Latin American republics directly post –independence. However I chose to include it because it brings us to the point that even today rights have not been completely established for all. The modern world today can be said to have greater rights for all than in previous times. However there are still many groups who feel (rightfully so) that their rights (traditional and otherwise) are not being respected and enforced. Within the group of people whose rights are marginalized or limited there is not necessarily an overarching or coherent demand/manifesto. This text though mainly focused on women does bring up the apparent conflict between women’s groups and indigenous groups. This allows us to look at a situation where two groups both being marginalized may not have exactly the same goals though on the surface it may appear so.
Document
Trials of Nation Making
Brooke Larson
Page 141
This section of the book focuses on indigenous rebellions and discontent in Peru during the post-colonial era. It focuses on the “Indian Question’, how the creole elites of the nation dealt with the indigenous peoples in Peru after independence. Under Spanish rule indigenous peoples were granted certain rights. They did have to pay tribute and there were many laws governing their existence. However they were guaranteed basic rights such as somewhat autonomous rule and communal property rights. A somewhat dubious exchange of tribute for various guaranteed rights. For this reason many indigenous leaders and others were not completely supportive of the independence movements of the time. Many of these movements were led by creole elites who did not necessarily have the best interests of the natives constantly in mind. Post-independence Latin America in general and in this case Peru still continued to have problems with indigenous rebellions and insurrection. Once independence for the new republics had been won many reforms were instituted. These reforms split land out among the people and declared an end to the indian tribute system. These reforms were Bolivarian in nature and did not often take into account communal land ownership by indigenous peoples and their traditional practices. Many of these reforms were later removed or changed over the next decades.
These examples of the conflicts within the new republics are an excellent way to examine the state of rights given to the various peoples within them. It highlights the conflicts within the new republics especially in regards to the native populations. Under colonial rule these indigenous peoples were granted certain rights guaranteed by the Spanish Crown. These rights consisted of things such as communal land ownership and autonomous local rule along tribal traditions. The main drivers for independence came as a result of the desires of the creole elites and not necessarily those of native peoples. Once independence had been accomplished those in power were generally the upper class creoles who lived in the largely urban areas. Many were inspired by the ideals of Simon Bolivar and wanted to create a utopian Bolivarian Republic. However many reforms actually ended up restricting and changing the rights of many indigenous people. These indigenous people before held their own lands (to an extent) and ruled themselves, once considered citizens of the new republics their rights changed and in many ways were lessened. Land was now divided up among people and communal land rights were no longer accepted/allowed. These indigenous peoples ended being put on the bottom on the hierarchy of society and were considered lesser peoples. This caused much resentment and may have led to many of the future rebellions and dissent in the Americas. This text focuses largely on the indigenous peoples of Peru however many other nations had issues with African descended peoples. Also the new republics struggled in relation to woman’s rights throughout the decades post independence.
read full post >>Assignment: power to the people
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Power to the people Batlle MC. La tentación populista: una vía de acceso al poder en América Latina. América Latina Hoy 2007 08;46:210-212. In the present paper a summary and analysis will be made. The main objective is to understand which are the main explanations of populism, and what is the nature that […] read full post >>
Assignment: power to the people
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Power to the people Batlle MC. La tentación populista: una vía de acceso al poder en América Latina. América Latina Hoy 2007 08;46:210-212. In the present paper a summary and analysis will be made. The main objective is to understand which are the main explanations of populism, and what is the nature that […] read full post >>
Research Assignment- Export Boom
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Labors Appropriate to Their Sex: Gender, Labour,
and Politics in Urban Chile, 1900-1930
In the nineteenth century, women in Chile worked hard, however this work was commonly done in their homes and was not for pay or seen by the public. A drastic change to this occurred when the exportation business rapidly grew, and in the early twentieth century, an enormous amount of people moved from their rural homes to urban cities in search of jobs. With so many men moving to these cities, women went as well, and could either depend on men to survive, or depend on themselves obtain one of the many jobs that the export boom had made possible. With countless of these jobs taking place in factories, this is here most of the woman went to work, as employers usually preferred to hire them as woman and children would work for a considerably lower pay than men. Though there were numerous jobs, and to be employed was not extremely difficult, the poor conditions and low wages caused many woman to constantly be looking for new jobs, creating an unstable work environment. Another factor which effected the jobs women had was their limited hours of availability, as many had families, creating domestic duties which they needed to make time for as well as work in factories’ in order to help provide for their families. Though the workforce was changing expeditiously, the differences between the role of men and women remained uncompromising, and these differences in roles remained steadfast. These gender divisions remained, and included the unspoken lesser value of women’s labor over men’s, and therefore the phrase “Labour appropriate to their sex” unfortunately became commonly used when discussing the jobs of women. The fact that most of these women had domestic duties as well illuminates on this phrase, as they were participating in the workforce, but they still were completing their traditional duties.
This low value attached to the work which women performed was challenged by Laura Rose Zelada, who also went by the name of Honorio Cortes. This was a woman in the early twentieth century who disguised herself as a man with the intention of creating a better life for herself as she was fully aware that men obtained higher paying jobs then women. Though she was arrested when caught for her actions, she was released quite quickly, as she had committed no crime. This created heavy press and attention, which was more positive than it was negative. It caused people all throughout Chile to sympathize with the burdens women in the workforce had to overcome, especially when a woman had managed to dress as man and perform jobs to same ability as any other man.
Women disguising themselves as men is not a new phenomenon, as this has happened numerous times in history, with a certain case being Catalina de Erauso, who disguised herself as a man and then became transgender. The fact that women have felt so trapped in their traditional roles that they have had to make the drastic actions of changing who they are to the public is concerning, especially when it has been over such a large time period as well as all over the world.
Hutchison, Elizabeth Quay. (2001) Labours Appropriate to Their Sex: Gender, Labours, and Politics in Urban Chile, 1900-1930. Durham, NC: Duke University Press Books: 19-36
Dulcinea in the Factory: Myths, Morals, Men and Women in Colombia's Industrial Experiment, 1905-1960
Strikes in Colombia in the 1930’s were a result of the dramatic social crisis, and these strikes were occurring in such an abundant amount, as well as places one would not typically expect a workers strike to occur. Owners of companies often believed these strikes to be caused by outside influences hoping to cause trouble, or even by the president at the time, Alfonso Lopez Pumarejo, as he had been wanting change. However, the actual workers complaints had little to do with any political parties. These strikes affected every worker differently, as well as meant different things to each person.
There were many changes in the politics of Colombia in this time, a reason for this may possibly have been a result of the country being slower to make political changes in the twentieth century, and took up until the 1930’s for major changes to occur in the political party which controlled Colombia. Another reason may have been the enormous debt they found themselves in, since after the growing exportation business brought the country so much money, they lost control and borrowed more than they could actually afford. This expansion of the economy allowed the works to be more demanding, with the main requirement being receiving increase of pay, as well as more job stability, and even paid vacation time. When wishes were not granted, huge amounts of strikes began, one of the most concerning being the banana workers strike whom worked for the United Fruit Company. Some of these strikes managed to look past gender, and the men from all male union actually relied on women, which allowed these women to voice their demands in the strikes. These strikes affected every worker differently, as well as meant different things to each person.
Maria Elisa was a textile worker at this time who had actually left a previous job due to low pay, and therefore understood the 1935 strike, as the people were insisting on receiving higher pay. However, the acts of violence made the strike a bitter memory for her. The women strikers effected Maria Elisa heavily, as the chaos they created included throwing rocks at other women who were not participating in the strike. In her opinion, a person who had little economic blessings would have the most success by having a positive relationship for the company in which they work for and remain loyal to it.
Workers strikes can insure better condition for workers themselves of they feel they are being treated unfairly, but strikes can not only cause a broken relationship between the workers and the company, but they also greatly impact those not involved in the companies or businesses. When the two sides are being equally stubborn, the workers refusing to work and the greater power refusing to give the worker what they want, strikes can last much longer than they need to, which negatively impacts the public. This was seen recently here in British Columbia in the B.C. teachers strike, where students lost a great deal of the time which would normally be dedicated to their studies.
Farnworth-Alvear, Ann. (2000). Dulcinea in the Factory: Myths, Morals, Men and Women in Colombia's Industrial Experiment, 1905-1960.Duke University Press :123-148
Research Assignment- Export Boom
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Labors Appropriate to Their Sex: Gender, Labour,
and Politics in Urban Chile, 1900-1930
In the nineteenth century, women in Chile worked hard, however this work was commonly done in their homes and was not for pay or seen by the public. A drastic change to this occurred when the exportation business rapidly grew, and in the early twentieth century, an enormous amount of people moved from their rural homes to urban cities in search of jobs. With so many men moving to these cities, women went as well, and could either depend on men to survive, or depend on themselves obtain one of the many jobs that the export boom had made possible. With countless of these jobs taking place in factories, this is here most of the woman went to work, as employers usually preferred to hire them as woman and children would work for a considerably lower pay than men. Though there were numerous jobs, and to be employed was not extremely difficult, the poor conditions and low wages caused many woman to constantly be looking for new jobs, creating an unstable work environment. Another factor which effected the jobs women had was their limited hours of availability, as many had families, creating domestic duties which they needed to make time for as well as work in factories’ in order to help provide for their families. Though the workforce was changing expeditiously, the differences between the role of men and women remained uncompromising, and these differences in roles remained steadfast. These gender divisions remained, and included the unspoken lesser value of women’s labor over men’s, and therefore the phrase “Labour appropriate to their sex” unfortunately became commonly used when discussing the jobs of women. The fact that most of these women had domestic duties as well illuminates on this phrase, as they were participating in the workforce, but they still were completing their traditional duties.
This low value attached to the work which women performed was challenged by Laura Rose Zelada, who also went by the name of Honorio Cortes. This was a woman in the early twentieth century who disguised herself as a man with the intention of creating a better life for herself as she was fully aware that men obtained higher paying jobs then women. Though she was arrested when caught for her actions, she was released quite quickly, as she had committed no crime. This created heavy press and attention, which was more positive than it was negative. It caused people all throughout Chile to sympathize with the burdens women in the workforce had to overcome, especially when a woman had managed to dress as man and perform jobs to same ability as any other man.
Women disguising themselves as men is not a new phenomenon, as this has happened numerous times in history, with a certain case being Catalina de Erauso, who disguised herself as a man and then became transgender. The fact that women have felt so trapped in their traditional roles that they have had to make the drastic actions of changing who they are to the public is concerning, especially when it has been over such a large time period as well as all over the world.
Hutchison, Elizabeth Quay. (2001) Labours Appropriate to Their Sex: Gender, Labours, and Politics in Urban Chile, 1900-1930. Durham, NC: Duke University Press Books: 19-36
Dulcinea in the Factory: Myths, Morals, Men and Women in Colombia's Industrial Experiment, 1905-1960
Strikes in Colombia in the 1930’s were a result of the dramatic social crisis, and these strikes were occurring in such an abundant amount, as well as places one would not typically expect a workers strike to occur. Owners of companies often believed these strikes to be caused by outside influences hoping to cause trouble, or even by the president at the time, Alfonso Lopez Pumarejo, as he had been wanting change. However, the actual workers complaints had little to do with any political parties. These strikes affected every worker differently, as well as meant different things to each person.
There were many changes in the politics of Colombia in this time, a reason for this may possibly have been a result of the country being slower to make political changes in the twentieth century, and took up until the 1930’s for major changes to occur in the political party which controlled Colombia. Another reason may have been the enormous debt they found themselves in, since after the growing exportation business brought the country so much money, they lost control and borrowed more than they could actually afford. This expansion of the economy allowed the works to be more demanding, with the main requirement being receiving increase of pay, as well as more job stability, and even paid vacation time. When wishes were not granted, huge amounts of strikes began, one of the most concerning being the banana workers strike whom worked for the United Fruit Company. Some of these strikes managed to look past gender, and the men from all male union actually relied on women, which allowed these women to voice their demands in the strikes. These strikes affected every worker differently, as well as meant different things to each person.
Maria Elisa was a textile worker at this time who had actually left a previous job due to low pay, and therefore understood the 1935 strike, as the people were insisting on receiving higher pay. However, the acts of violence made the strike a bitter memory for her. The women strikers effected Maria Elisa heavily, as the chaos they created included throwing rocks at other women who were not participating in the strike. In her opinion, a person who had little economic blessings would have the most success by having a positive relationship for the company in which they work for and remain loyal to it.
Workers strikes can insure better condition for workers themselves of they feel they are being treated unfairly, but strikes can not only cause a broken relationship between the workers and the company, but they also greatly impact those not involved in the companies or businesses. When the two sides are being equally stubborn, the workers refusing to work and the greater power refusing to give the worker what they want, strikes can last much longer than they need to, which negatively impacts the public. This was seen recently here in British Columbia in the B.C. teachers strike, where students lost a great deal of the time which would normally be dedicated to their studies.
Farnworth-Alvear, Ann. (2000). Dulcinea in the Factory: Myths, Morals, Men and Women in Colombia's Industrial Experiment, 1905-1960.Duke University Press :123-148
Assignment
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Source One: Juan Domingo Peron: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1950peronism2.html In a speech made my Juan Domingo Peron in 1948, he addresses what Peronism is. He may be speaking to a crowd of people who identify themselves as Peronists, but he is also directing his speech to legislators in congress. In his speech, Peron emphasizes two important points about […]
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Newmont’s Conga Project in Peru Faces Uncertain Fate http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2013/04/12/newmonts-conga-project-in-peru-fates-uncertain-fate/ In 2011, the The Newmount Mining Corporation started the Conga Project, an expansion of the Yanacocha mine in Cajamarca, Peru. However, numerous protests in the city of Cajamarca, located only 73 kilometers from the expansion project have paused the development of the project since the […] read full post >>
Research Assignment
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Newmont’s Conga Project in Peru Faces Uncertain Fate http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2013/04/12/newmonts-conga-project-in-peru-fates-uncertain-fate/ In 2011, the The Newmount Mining Corporation started the Conga Project, an expansion of the Yanacocha mine in Cajamarca, Peru. However, numerous protests in the city of Cajamarca, located only 73 kilometers from the expansion project have paused the development of the project since the […] read full post >>
Writing assignments
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Source: Colby, J. M. 2006. “Banana growing and negro management”: Race, Labor, and Jim Crow Colonialism in Guatemala, 1884-1930. Diplomatic History 30(4), 595-621
Looking at the Export Boom as Modernity in Latin America, Dawson argues that the notion of order, then progress is “critical to the story of the late nineteenth century” as Latin America’s elites believed their nations wouldn’t modernize without first establishing order. (2014:115). In the region, many countries relied on North American investors to stabilize the production of railroads which were seen as the key to modern progress. Colby’s article “Banana Growing and Negro Management”: Race, Labor, and Jim Crow Colonialism in Guatemala, 1884–1930 explores how U.S. culture of white supremacy played a central role in shaping labor control and race relations on Guatemala’s north coast (599). To me, it shines the light on the ideas of ‘order, then progress’ in regards to the institutionalization of racism in Guatemala’s main export plantations and the construction of the Northern Railroad.
From 1870-1930 Guatemala’s principal exports were coffee and bananas (Dawson, 2014:118). After the creation of synthetic dyes, “modernizers identified coffee exports as the engine of national progress, and they called on the government to force the highland Maya into laboring on coffee plantations” when liberal coffee planter Justo Rufino Barrios “passed taxes and labor laws designed to force Mayan Indians into agricultural labor and trap them in a debt peonage” (Colby, 2006:601-602). Colby explains how racial conceptions of ‘Indian” and ‘non-Indian’ or ‘Ladino’ served economic purposes, as Ladinos held occupations such as labor recruiters, and police or military officers. Theses jobs held control and order over Mayan workers for the production of coffee exportation. This idea of order among the Maya was purely racial. Guatemalan elites in the 1800’s saw them selves as “cursed” by Guatemala’s Mayan majority because the Maya were ““strongly addicted to their own habits, ways and customs.” Only through white immigration and the leadership of a light-skinned elite, such men argued, could the nation overcome its backward Indian majority” (Colby, 2006:600).
Similarly, racism was also utilized in the production of the Northern Railroad. As railroads were seen as the key to progress among Latin American elites. In 1882 Barrios made deals with U.S. contractors for the construction of the Northern Railroad which would connect coffee and banana plantations for exportation and railroad rely heavily on black American labor (Colby, 603). Although workers were out of the U.S., the Jim Crow practices of the southern states were transplanted to the Northern Coast of Guatemala (Colby 2006:606). Violence against African Americans pushed them to flee to Guatemala’s interior, but by 1903 Guatemalan judges applied vagrancy laws to bring African Americans back to work (Colby 2006:604). Sadly, although U.S. diplomats generally protested anti-black violence, responses were usually “couched in racial terms” and was done mostly to maintain respect of American citizenship (Colby 2006: 604). Since the United States shared racial conceptions of African descendant peoples, defense of victims merely strengthened U.S. imperialism as well as racist ideologies and indirectly justified Guatemalan laws which enabled the coercion of Maya and people of African descendent to work on plantations and railroads.
Colby’s article gives a lot of attention to the United Fruit Company, as an empire in itself, and its racist practices as an example of corporate colonialism in Guatemala. The article expresses a number of cases of blatant violence and racism against African American and British West Indian workers of the United Fruit Company and the Northern Railroad. The racial institutionalization in areas of export production suggest that it is the manifestation of the idea that Dawson puts forward of ‘order, then progress’ as ‘racial order, then progress’.
Source: Peard, Julyan. Race, Place, and Medicine” The Idea of the Tropics in Nineteenth-Century Brazil. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000.
Chapter three of this book talks about how race was considered in the examination of specific diseases that were common in Brazil in the later half of the 19th Century, and how these ideas strategically shaped perceptions about “backwardness” and “modernization” in regards to politics, and the Brazilian economy. The studies were done by a group of doctors who called themselves the Tropicalistas. When this idea was first introduced to the medical public, ideas circulated and varied around the question of how “tropical medicine” would be defined. For example, “should tropical pathology be concerned with such… disorders that appeared to be largely exclusive to hot and humid climates? Or were all disorders of Brazil to be considered tropical in the sense of being universal but subject to peculiar exacerbating factors in the tropics?” (81). Regardless of the ever-changing definition of tropical medicine, the focus of disorders that occurred in this area allowed Brazil to use the “demystification of ‘tropical’ disorders” to fend off European ideas of Brazilian cultural, and biological inferiority (83-84).
Problems of race further developed with these studies by Europeans ideas, based on high mortality rates, that they were lacking a certain immunity that those who were born in the tropics did not. Because this immunity was not understood, it further led to European doctors believing that “whites ‘degenerated’ morally, and physically, in the Brazilian climate” because “blacks, as native to the tropics, were considered degenerate” (85). These beliefs were set by debates dealing with whether physical racial characteristics correlated with qualities of intellect, or social progress, and whether “crossbreeding” of races led to inevitable degeneration (85).
A shift began to occur after the end of the slave trade in 1850. Despite the economic reliance on slavery in the past, in 1870 voices began to condemn the institution, and the Tropicalistas were among them. Because slavery was now viewed as backwardness, Tropicalistas linked the cholera epidemic to the harsh conditions of slavery. Now the economic question arose of “how to ensure and efficient and orderly free-market force as the country moved toward the end of slavery” (89). Basically what happened was a social “whitening” which allowed “mullatoes” to change their race by assimilating to ““civilized” manners that the white upper-class Brazilians deemed appropriate” (91). This “whitening” of Brazil disproved the two ideas from North American and European racial science: “that racial hybridization must mean degeneration and regression, and that racial differences were only biologically determined and not malleable to social conditioning”. This gave Brazilian doctors the import role of creating an image of an “improved race” (92).
The freeing of slaves and the “whitening” of a more “civilized” race integrated people from slavery into positions as prestigious as doctors, and therefore contributed to the economic development of Brazil. This helped allow the nation to transform from a “backward” society heavily reliant on slavery to a “modernized” society which held different views of miscegenation than other slave societies. It is interesting to see this way of modernization in contrast to countries such as Guatemala, which adopted Jim Crow practices from the United states to fuel their economy.
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Source: Colby, J. M. 2006. “Banana growing and negro management”: Race, Labor, and Jim Crow Colonialism in Guatemala, 1884-1930. Diplomatic History 30(4), 595-621
Looking at the Export Boom as Modernity in Latin America, Dawson argues that the notion of order, then progress is “critical to the story of the late nineteenth century” as Latin America’s elites believed their nations wouldn’t modernize without first establishing order. (2014:115). In the region, many countries relied on North American investors to stabilize the production of railroads which were seen as the key to modern progress. Colby’s article “Banana Growing and Negro Management”: Race, Labor, and Jim Crow Colonialism in Guatemala, 1884–1930 explores how U.S. culture of white supremacy played a central role in shaping labor control and race relations on Guatemala’s north coast (599). To me, it shines the light on the ideas of ‘order, then progress’ in regards to the institutionalization of racism in Guatemala’s main export plantations and the construction of the Northern Railroad.
From 1870-1930 Guatemala’s principal exports were coffee and bananas (Dawson, 2014:118). After the creation of synthetic dyes, “modernizers identified coffee exports as the engine of national progress, and they called on the government to force the highland Maya into laboring on coffee plantations” when liberal coffee planter Justo Rufino Barrios “passed taxes and labor laws designed to force Mayan Indians into agricultural labor and trap them in a debt peonage” (Colby, 2006:601-602). Colby explains how racial conceptions of ‘Indian” and ‘non-Indian’ or ‘Ladino’ served economic purposes, as Ladinos held occupations such as labor recruiters, and police or military officers. Theses jobs held control and order over Mayan workers for the production of coffee exportation. This idea of order among the Maya was purely racial. Guatemalan elites in the 1800’s saw them selves as “cursed” by Guatemala’s Mayan majority because the Maya were ““strongly addicted to their own habits, ways and customs.” Only through white immigration and the leadership of a light-skinned elite, such men argued, could the nation overcome its backward Indian majority” (Colby, 2006:600).
Similarly, racism was also utilized in the production of the Northern Railroad. As railroads were seen as the key to progress among Latin American elites. In 1882 Barrios made deals with U.S. contractors for the construction of the Northern Railroad which would connect coffee and banana plantations for exportation and railroad rely heavily on black American labor (Colby, 603). Although workers were out of the U.S., the Jim Crow practices of the southern states were transplanted to the Northern Coast of Guatemala (Colby 2006:606). Violence against African Americans pushed them to flee to Guatemala’s interior, but by 1903 Guatemalan judges applied vagrancy laws to bring African Americans back to work (Colby 2006:604). Sadly, although U.S. diplomats generally protested anti-black violence, responses were usually “couched in racial terms” and was done mostly to maintain respect of American citizenship (Colby 2006: 604). Since the United States shared racial conceptions of African descendant peoples, defense of victims merely strengthened U.S. imperialism as well as racist ideologies and indirectly justified Guatemalan laws which enabled the coercion of Maya and people of African descendent to work on plantations and railroads.
Colby’s article gives a lot of attention to the United Fruit Company, as an empire in itself, and its racist practices as an example of corporate colonialism in Guatemala. The article expresses a number of cases of blatant violence and racism against African American and British West Indian workers of the United Fruit Company and the Northern Railroad. The racial institutionalization in areas of export production suggest that it is the manifestation of the idea that Dawson puts forward of ‘order, then progress’ as ‘racial order, then progress’.
Source: Peard, Julyan. Race, Place, and Medicine” The Idea of the Tropics in Nineteenth-Century Brazil. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000.
Chapter three of this book talks about how race was considered in the examination of specific diseases that were common in Brazil in the later half of the 19th Century, and how these ideas strategically shaped perceptions about “backwardness” and “modernization” in regards to politics, and the Brazilian economy. The studies were done by a group of doctors who called themselves the Tropicalistas. When this idea was first introduced to the medical public, ideas circulated and varied around the question of how “tropical medicine” would be defined. For example, “should tropical pathology be concerned with such… disorders that appeared to be largely exclusive to hot and humid climates? Or were all disorders of Brazil to be considered tropical in the sense of being universal but subject to peculiar exacerbating factors in the tropics?” (81). Regardless of the ever-changing definition of tropical medicine, the focus of disorders that occurred in this area allowed Brazil to use the “demystification of ‘tropical’ disorders” to fend off European ideas of Brazilian cultural, and biological inferiority (83-84).
Problems of race further developed with these studies by Europeans ideas, based on high mortality rates, that they were lacking a certain immunity that those who were born in the tropics did not. Because this immunity was not understood, it further led to European doctors believing that “whites ‘degenerated’ morally, and physically, in the Brazilian climate” because “blacks, as native to the tropics, were considered degenerate” (85). These beliefs were set by debates dealing with whether physical racial characteristics correlated with qualities of intellect, or social progress, and whether “crossbreeding” of races led to inevitable degeneration (85).
A shift began to occur after the end of the slave trade in 1850. Despite the economic reliance on slavery in the past, in 1870 voices began to condemn the institution, and the Tropicalistas were among them. Because slavery was now viewed as backwardness, Tropicalistas linked the cholera epidemic to the harsh conditions of slavery. Now the economic question arose of “how to ensure and efficient and orderly free-market force as the country moved toward the end of slavery” (89). Basically what happened was a social “whitening” which allowed “mullatoes” to change their race by assimilating to ““civilized” manners that the white upper-class Brazilians deemed appropriate” (91). This “whitening” of Brazil disproved the two ideas from North American and European racial science: “that racial hybridization must mean degeneration and regression, and that racial differences were only biologically determined and not malleable to social conditioning”. This gave Brazilian doctors the import role of creating an image of an “improved race” (92).
The freeing of slaves and the “whitening” of a more “civilized” race integrated people from slavery into positions as prestigious as doctors, and therefore contributed to the economic development of Brazil. This helped allow the nation to transform from a “backward” society heavily reliant on slavery to a “modernized” society which held different views of miscegenation than other slave societies. It is interesting to see this way of modernization in contrast to countries such as Guatemala, which adopted Jim Crow practices from the United states to fuel their economy.
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