The Religion of Life (Hardback)
Eugenics, Race, and Catholicism in Chile
Pages: 238
Illustrations: 5 b&w
ISBN: 9780822946649
Published: 28th May 2022
Casemate UK Academic
(click here for international delivery rates)
Order within the next 6 hours, 32 minutes to get your order processed the next working day!
Need a currency converter? Check XE.com for live rates
The Religion of Life examines the interconnections and relationship between Catholicism and eugenics in early-twentieth-century Chile. Specifically, it demonstrates that the popularity of eugenic science was not diminished by the influence of Catholicism there. In fact, both eugenics and Catholicism worked together to construct the concept of a unique Chilean race, la raza chilena. A major factor that facilitated this conceptual overlap was a generalized belief among historical actors that male and female gender roles were biologically determined and therefore essential to a functioning society. As the first English-language study of eugenics in Chile, The Religion of Life surveys a wide variety of different materials (periodicals, newspapers, medical theses, and monographs) produced by Catholic and secular intellectuals from the first half of the twentieth century. What emerges from this examination is not only a more complex rendering of the relationship between religion and science, but also the development of White supremacist logics in a Latin American context.