BIOMETRICS AS AN INSTRUMENT OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION (1932 - 1944): CONSTITUTION OF SUBJECTS AND IDENTIFICATION OF POPULATION TYPES

Abstract:

This paper analyzes the biometric records as procedures of Physical Education, highlighting their productivity as knowledge capable of mobilizing senses about the bodies and the bodily practices. To do so, we took as historical sources the texts about Biometry/Biotypology dated from 1932 to 1944 and published in the journals Revista de Educação Física (Exército) and Educação Physica. Based on scientifically legitimate assumptions, the biometric records put into circulation knowledge considered substantial to the sport prescription and to the organization of homogeneous classes. In a context marked by identity intentions, Physical Education builds systems of body investigation that gather examinations and distribution of people in biotypes, procedures that individualize and subjectivize. Moreover, the processes of measurement in the biometric practice would produce files understood as capable of saying about the Brazilian population types, a practice linked to the nationalist policies that intended to forge a national identity.

Keywords:
Biotypology; Biometry; Physical Education and training; Population groups