Abstract
I analyze the participation of two Brazilian geneticists in the eugenics movement between the late 1920s and mid-1930s. In 1929, Octavio Domingues and Salvador de Toledo Piza joined Renato Kehl in editing Boletim de Eugenia [Eugenics Bulletin], the main channel for the communication of the movement in Brazil. They also published books that directly addressed eugenics, like A hereditariedade em face da educação [Inheritance in view of Education] (1929), by Domingues, or else addressed genetic theories with implications for eugenics, like Localização dos fatores na linina nuclear como base de uma nova teoria sobre a hereditariedade [Location of the Factors in the Lignin Nucleus as a Basis for a New Theory of Inheritance] (1930), by Toledo Piza. Although the leaders of eugenics in Brazilian society were physicians and psychiatrists, I argue that these two men's trajectories are important for understanding the movement. Finally, I note that although they both identified with the Mendelian theory of inheritance, they diverged when it came to the consequences of miscegenation.
Keywords:
eugenics; genetics; miscegenation