Abstract

CAMARGO, Alexandre de Paiva Rio. Racial measurement and statistical field in Brazilian census (1872-1940): a convergent approach. Bol. Mus. Para. Emilio Goeldi Cienc. Hum. [online]. 2009, vol.4, n.3, pp.361-385. ISSN 1981-8122.

This paper investigates the meanings given by the racial classification in several Brazilian census. It proposes a convergent analysis of the social-political conventions established for the research (1872, 1890, 1940) or omission (1920) of the racial item of the surveys in different historical moments and the emergency of the technical community of statisticians in the midst of changing in paradigm census. As a method, it assumes a circularity between the social system of racial classification, the interpretations chapters on national identity hired to introduce the census - "O povo brasileiro e sua evolução" by Oliveira Vianna (1920), and "A cultura brasileira" by Fernando de Azevedo (1940) - and the role played by the technical requirements in the taken positions of the statisticians. The article analyzes the reports written by the census committees and organizers at the verbal level, in order to compare the arguments presented to the informations and crossings obtained in the matrix level. It takes the 1940 census as a turning point in the statistical activity because it reveals the structural conflict between the policy function primarily reserved for statistics and the consecration of the technical competence. Accordingly, this paper addresses the gradual release of statistical ideology from the political propaganda on the color.

Keywords : Racial classification; Political demography; Census paradigm; Statistical institutions; Sociology of statistics; History of statistics.

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