Catholicism, Race and Empire: Eugenics in Portugal, 1900-1950

ISBN-13: 9789633860281 / Angielski / Twarda / 2014 / 304 str.

Richard Cleminson

Opis

This monograph discusses Portuguese eugenics within a strong international historiographical comparative framework and situates it within different regional, scientific and ideological types of eugenics in the same period. The author argues about three factors that curtailed the development of eugenics in Portugal: the low level of institutionalization, Catholic opposition and the conservative nature of the Salazar regime. The eugenic science and movement was confined to three principal expressions: individualized studies on mental health, often from a 'biotypological' perspective; a particular stance on racial miscegenation within the context of the existence of large colonies under Portuguese rule; and a diffuse model of social hygiene, maternity care and puericulture.