Production and circulation of scientific medical knowledge in Santa Catarina, 1920-1970

produção e circulação de conhecimento médico científico em Santa Catarina, 1920-1970

Abstract

The text aims to present part of the results of research carried out during the doctorate that collided with the thesis entitled “Between the pen and the scalpel: Oswaldo Cabral and the colonization of memory in Santa Catarina (1929-1972)”.  Here, the question of the production and dissemination of scientific medical information in Santa Catarina, a southern state of Brazil, through history books written by a doctor and historian from Santa Catarina, Oswaldo Rodrigues Cabral, between the 1920s and 1970s. A producer of historical material in the state during this period, Cabral served as a diffuser of research in medicine and a translator of knowledge into a more popular language, specially in relation to diseases caused by microscopic agentes. He also was an advocate of hygiene and sanitary habits as an important action to combat mortality and economic backwardness in Brazil. He justified his research as a mission to build a civilized nation in Brazil, by inhibiting the dissemination of healing practices linked mainly to African culture and religiosity in the country, in general, and in Santa Catarina, in particular.