Children and the Misericórdia of Rio: Circulation and Transformation of Spaces (Rio de Janeiro, 1870-1920)

Abstract

This article examines health care provided to childhood by the Santa Casa da Misericordia of Rio de Janeiro in a period when institutions focused on children’s health did not exist in Brazil. The main hypothesis I will support is that the Casa dos Expostos gradually began to exercise functions which were distinct from those it was originally responsible for. From this perspective, continuity would mean maintaining the name, its connection to the Mercy institution, the symbolism and ritual of the Fraternity. To demonstrate this hypothesis, My basis will be a set of documents stored at the old Casa dos Expostos, composed of two books in which the children sent there in order to be breastfeed while their mothers were treated at the General Hospital of Mercy were registered. This documentation allows us to take a glance at the daily life of the Fraternity as far as assisting helpless children is concerned, a category of service that starts being frequently seen in the corridors of Casa dos Expostos from the 1870s; as well as issues related to health management and disease of these children and, in some cases, of their mothers; their race and material culture.