Keywords
childhood
childcare
subjectivation
How to Cite
Abstract
In this paper we study the origin of modern scientific childcare as a practice of subjectivation. From this point of view, we analyse the parenting or childrearing technologies which are proposed in a sample of 23 Spanish and Latin American early childcare handbooks published between 1898 and 1939. These technologies of subjectivation should be understood as an important element of a process for the construction of subject as a responsible, adapted and self-governing citizen. These technologies should also be understood in the context defined by the biopolitics and the development of eugenics, which helped many authors –most of them doctors– to defend the need to ensure the physical and moral health of nation through a scientific rearing of little children, that is to say, the future citizens.This journal is registered under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License. Thus, this work may be reproduced, distributed, and publicly shared in digital format, as long as the names of the authors and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana are acknowledged. Others are allowed to quote, adapt, transform, auto-archive, republish, and create based on this material, for any purpose (even commercial ones), provided the authorship is duly acknowledged, a link to the original work is provided, and it is specified if changes have been made. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana does not hold the rights of published works and the authors are solely responsible for the contents of their works; they keep the moral, intellectual, privacy, and publicity rights. Approving the intervention of the work (review, copy-editing, translation, layout) and the following outreach, are granted through an use license and not through an assignment of rights. This means the journal and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana cannot be held responsible for any ethical malpractice by the authors. As a consequence of the protection granted by the use license, the journal is not required to publish recantations or modify information already published, unless the errata stems from the editorial management process. Publishing contents in this journal does not generate royalties for contributors.