Doctoral Dissertation Reason and Faith: A Study of Interwar Chilean Eugenic Discourse

博士论文理性与信仰：两次世界大战期间智利优生话语研究

• 批准号: 0959821
• 负责人: Karin Rosemblatt
• 金额: $ 1.5万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland, College Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-03-15 至 2012-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0959821&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Reason; Faith; Study

This dissertation project focuses on interwar Chile to understand the dynamic relationship between Catholicism, gender and eugenics in Latin America. Historians of science often argue that eugenics (efforts to improve the proportion of positve traits in human populations by selective breeding) was distasteful to most Latin Americans, scientists and laymen, because of their Catholic identities. However, using a variety of scientific pamphlets, ephemera, treatises and instruction materials, this project will illuminate how Latin American Catholics engaged eugenic science. Latin Americans, Chileans included, generally latched on to the Lamarckian contention that creating a eugenic environment would gradually improve populations over time, rather than encouraging the separation of unfit individuals from the rest of society.The intellectual merit of this project lies in its focus on the complicated relationship between science and religion in Chile. This relationship has been studied in the United States and Europe, but this is not true of the Latin American case. Many historians overlook Latin America as a place of scientific innovation precisely because of its religious identity. The result of this has been the relative dearth of scholarly work on the history of science in Latin America, particularly science practiced by Latin Americans without the intervention of Europeans or Americans. Scholars who do discuss Latin American science often portray it as flawed or derivative. This project, however, will treat Chilean eugenics as legitimate. This approach will better historiographically link Chilean eugenics to literature on the relationship between religion and science in North Atlantic countries.The broader impact of this project will be an examination of the power scientific discourse had in the creation of Latin American interwar gender norms. Both religious and secular Chileans shored up notions of modernized, patriarchal gender systems that emphasized the role of women as wives and mothers through the use of eugenic discourse. This allows for the exploration of how both Catholicism and modernized patriarchy affected the development of eugenic science in Latin America.This project was funded by way of NSF's Science, Technology and Society Program.

该论文项目的重点是战争智利智利，以了解拉丁美洲天主教，性别和优生学之间的动态关系。科学的历史学家经常认为，优生学（通过选择性繁殖来提高人口中的正态特征比例的努力）对大多数拉丁美洲美国人，科学家和外行，因为他们的天主教身份。 但是，使用各种科学的小册子，埃弗梅拉，论文和教学材料，该项目将阐明拉丁美洲天主教徒如何参与优生学科学。拉丁美洲人，包括智利人，通常是在拉马克式的论点上锁定的，即创建优生环境会随着时间的流逝而逐渐改善人口，而不是鼓励将不合适的人与社会其他社会分开。该项目的智力优点在于它的重点是智利科学与宗教之间的复杂关系。这种关系在美国和欧洲进行了研究，但对拉丁美洲的案件并非如此。许多历史学家将拉丁美洲视为科学创新的地方，正是由于其宗教身份。结果是在拉丁美洲的科学史上的学术研究相对匮乏，尤其是在没有欧洲人或美国人干预的情况下由拉丁美洲人实践的科学。确实讨论拉丁美洲科学的学者通常将其描述为有缺陷或衍生的。但是，这个项目将把智利优生学视为合法的。这种方法将在史学上更好地将智利优生学与北大西洋国家宗教与科学之间关系的文献联系起来。该项目的更广泛影响将是对力量科学论述在创建拉丁美洲世界战争之间性别规范中的研究。宗教和世俗的智利人都掩盖了现代化的父权性别制度的概念，这些制度强调了妇女作为妻子和母亲的作用，这是通过使用优生话语的。这允许探索天主教和现代化的父权制如何影响拉丁美洲的优生科学的发展。该项目是通过NSF的科学，技术和社会计划资助的。