Diagnosis of ‘the people’. Medical readings on Colombian Indians and Blacks, 1870-1920

Abstract

Objective: This article discusses how the concept of el pueblo was incorporated into the reflections of Colombian physicians between 1870 and 1920. It also seeks to understand the circumstances leading to the enunciation of this concept. In doing so, the article highlights the cultural nature of scientific knowledge. Content: Based on a review of the medical literature published during that period of time, this article looks at the main strategies used by physicians to describe el pueblo. It highlights that these descriptions were derived from the political, social and cultural dynamics influencing Colombia’s medical practice. The article shows how el pueblo, constituted by the figures of the Indian and the Black, emerged as a scienti c concern that was articulated to a series of existing physical, racial, moral and intellectual markers. Conclusions: The article proposes that the incorporation of el pueblo to the medical literature was part of medicine’s attempt to diagnose society, based on the scienti c tools acquired in the late 19th century. The article concludes that this diagnosis did not abandon categories rooted in physicians’ own sociocultural contexts.