O tanatopoder e as epidemias: discurso civilizador e saúde pública no centro urbano de São Luís no início do século XX

Abstract

Analysis of social control exercised before the dead bodies in the inner city of São Luís - MA, in the early twentieth century (1900-1905). The early years of the twentieth century to society ludovicense were marked by outbreaks of smallpox and bubonic plague, and various public health problems. The presence of these diseases and epidemics also listed among the population Tanatopoder encouraged the emergence of the region, whose aim was to exert social control before the dead bodies, considered at the time, vectors of disease. This is a historical, genealogical character who tries to reveal the dispute between some instances of power (São Luís Public Administration - supported by scientism of the time, the Ecclesiastical Discourse and Market) before the dead bodies. Based on documents from the Province of Hygiene of the State of Maranhão (letters and reports), speeches of the political, journalistic discourses, literature and books of doctors in the period, presents initially the urban characteristics, and economic health of São Luís then characterized the civilizing discourse ludovicense that, based on principles of biopolitics in effect, encouraged social practices aimed at standardizing the dead under the guise of health of the living. Finally, it identifies the emergence of a market in this area that speech on the principles of asepsis missed the dead and new consumption patterns, weakened the role of religious discourse in the face of human finitude and proposed a new model of dying.