Advisor(s)

Mark Overmyer-Velazquez

Contributor(s)

Laura Levine Frader (1945-)

Date of Award

2008

Date Accepted

4-2008

Degree Grantor

Northeastern University

Degree Level

M.A.

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department or Academic Unit

College of Arts and Sciences. Department of History.

Keywords

Hygiene, Vaccinations, History

Subject Categories

Public health--Mexico--Oaxaca--History

Disciplines

Political History | Social History

Abstract

Public hygiene discourse in Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries positioned the human body as an object requiring hygienic treatment. In Oaxaca, Mexico the legislation designed to "inject modernity" functioned as a tool to control the lives of the socially and politically "unhygienic." Despite moves towards "modernity" made by elites, vaccine legislation was not effective tool because the agency of the popular classes and peasants of Mexico reshaped the vaccination projects according to their local situation. This thesis discusses the vaccination program as an emblem of elite efforts to "modernize" and "hygienize" the bodies of ordinary Oaxaqueños. I show, through my reading of their communications with the state government, how local jefes politicos, political officials in charge of rural districts, and those enlisted to perform in the vaccination projects, agents or propagators of the vaccine, were able to influence, negotiate, and reject the aims of "modernity."

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Rights Holder

Rebecca Ann Dufendach


View Full Text

Click button above to open, or right-click to save.

Share

COinS