Ações de saúde pública em Santa Maria/RS na segunda metade do século XIX

Abstract

In order to discuss the power relations and health in Santa Maria, inside the Rio Grande do Sul, during the second half of the nineteenth century, we propose a discussion about the professional practices of responsible both for the municipal administration, as the health of the population and space, through the figure of priests, councilors and doctors. With the objective to understand how was the process of public health training in Santa Maria, is based on research produced by Gilberto Hochman (1998) and Dorothy Porter (2001). The methodology used is inspired by the reduction ratios, by understanding that this work is not about a local story, but a look at small scale for issues that were occurring within the Rio Grande do Sul, but that may raise questions for more general analysis. So that we can understand, in a more accurate way, how was the health publicity process in Brazil, by increasing the state's power to intervene in urban areas, to improve their hygienic conditions. As sources, were used mainly: death records of the Municipal Cemetery and the Church; Minutes of the City Council; correspondence and reports of the presidents of Rio Grande do Sul Province. This research, which was funded by CAPES, is linked to the area of concentration of the Graduate Program in History "History, power and culture" and inserted into the line of research "Migration and Labour", in which is analyzed both forms of material organization of urban space, as the concerns with regard to health and hygiene during the second half of the nineteenth century.