This article examines the routine of the Manguinhos Institute during the first decades of the 20th Century, emphasizing the relationships of work inside the laboratories. This routine reveals that, despite the small size of its technical-scientific staff, the institute's extraordinary productivity resulted from its diversity of activities. They were professionals endowed with exceptional flexibility both in action and in the selection of the object of study. To put it simply, the scientist of Manguinhos did everything. One hypothesis about such flexibility is related to the comprehension of the local science as part of the local cultural practices. Following the path opened by the concept of cordial man, as defined by Sergio Buarque de Holanda in his book Raízes do Brasil (Roots of Brazil), this work wonders if there was in Manguinhos the science that follows him, i.e., the cordial science. The text presents some possible answers drawn from the analysis of the relationships established between the scientists and their `subordinates', the research assistants, in which the rigor and formalism of scientific laboratory practices coexisted with typically Brazilian patriarchal relationships.
Manguinhos; cordial science; laboratory studies