ABSTRACT This article examines the reception of eugenic thought among the followers of the Neo-Zoroastrian Mazdaznan movement primarily in North America and Britain, with respect to their ideas on “race”, the role of women in eugenics, and the question of environment versus heredity in eugenic thought. It focuses on the work of Dr. Otoman Zar-Adhust Ha’nish, the movement’s founder, and some of his supporters in the first four decades of the twentieth century. The article argues that Mazdaznan, when explicit about eugenics, held much in common with other “radical” or “life reform” movements of the time. It also examines how Mazdaznan connected with movements that favoured the purification and exaltation of the “white race” as the maximum expression of human and spiritual attainment. Finally, it examines the role of women in the production of this “regenerated” “race” as part of the eugenic project.

RESUMO Este artigo examina a recepção do pensamento eugênico nos seguidores do movimento Neo-Zoroastriano, o Mazdaznan, principalmente na América do Norte e na Grã-Bretanha, no que diz respeito à “raça”, ao papel da mulher na eugenia e à relação entre meio ambiente e hereditariedade no pensamento eugênico. Toma como foco o trabalho do Dr. Otoman Zar-Adhust Ha’nish, fundador do movimento, e de alguns de seus seguidores, nas primeiras quatro décadas do século XX. O artigo argumenta que Mazdaznan, no que concerne à eugenia, tinha muito em comum com outros movimentos “radicais” ou de “reforma da vida” em voga na época. Também examina como o Mazdaznan se conecta com movimentos que favorecem a purificação e a exaltação da “raça branca” como expressão máxima da realização humana e espiritual. Finalmente, analisa o papel da mulher na produção desta “raça” “regenerada”, como parte do projeto eugênico.

Abstract The short-lived publication O Negro (1911) was a journal created and written by a group of individuals who came mainly from the colonized islands of São Tomé and Príncipe, off the west coast of Africa. This article argues that the publication constituted the first, although ephemeral, Black-owned journal to question the colonial status quo in Lisbon in the twentieth century. By means of a powerful, albeit often ambivalent discourse on exploitation, racial injustice, and economic hardship, O Negro articulated a transnational focus for a reassessment of the colonial relationship in Lusophone territories. It thereby provided the foundation for later attempts struggling for racial justice up to the establishment of the Salazar dictatorship.

Resumo A publicação O Negro (1911), de curta duração, foi um jornal criado e escrito por um grupo de indivíduos que eram principalmente das ilhas colonizadas de São Tomé e Príncipe, na costa oeste da África. O argumento deste artigo é que esta publicação constitui o primeiro, embora efémero, periódico da propriedade de pessoas oriundas da África a fornecer uma reevaluação da relação colonial em Lisboa no século XX. Por meio de um poderoso e às vezes ambivalente discurso sobre a exploração, a injustiça racial e as dificuldades económicas, O Negro articulou um enfoque transnacional para aqueles que questionavam a relação colonial nos territórios lusófonos. Assim, forneceu a base para tentativas em épocas posteriores a favor da luta pela justiça racial até o estabelecimento da ditadura de Salazar.

This article provides the basis for further considerations on the overlap between different expressions of science, in particular psychotechnics, biotypology and eugenics, in Iberia. It sets the reception of and interest in these scientific undertakings within the specific context pertaining in both Iberian dictatorships and considers the importance of the culture of the scientific community, the role of religion and the presence of positivism within each. While the actual traffic of knowledge between the two countries was limited, the contrasts and differences in the uptake of these specialisms within the two countries and their proximity or otherwise to other fascist and authoritarian regimes of the 1930s and 1940s are explored. The article concludes that in the Spanish case, although there were greater proximities to certain forms of fascist and Nazi eugenics, it was the commitment to Catholicism and nationalist regeneration that allowed for concessions to environmental improvements. A more Germanic strain was present in Portugal but this was dislodged by a consistent commitment to social hygiene rather than racial hygiene, again within the constraints provided by overarching Catholicism.

Resumo Este artigo faz uma avaliação crítica da participação dos eugenicistas portugueses na “eugenia latina” e investiga as continuidades e descontinuidades relacionadas a esse modelo. Concentra-se especialmente em diversos exemplos de uma eugenia mais “germânica”, em contraste e em comparação com as versões latinas. Na primeira categoria, são considerados Eusébio Tamagnini, José Ayres de Azevedo e Leopoldina Ferreira de Paulo; na segunda, é dada consideração especial à obra de Almerindo Lessa sobre “miscigenação racial”. As conclusões sugerem que devemos buscar diversidade tanto no modelo de eugenia latino como no modelo do norte da Europa, também inserindo Portugal no leque de possíveis versões de eugenia durante a primeira metade do século XX.

Abstract This article assesses critically the participation of Portuguese eugenicists in “Latin eugenics” and traces the continuities and discontinuities with respect to this model. In particular, it focuses on a number of examples of more “Germanic” eugenics in contrast and in comparison to Latin versions of eugenics. In the former category, Eusébio Tamagnini, José Ayres de Azevedo and Leopoldina Ferreira de Paulo are considered; in the latter category, especially the work of Almerindo Lessa on “racial mixing” is considered. The conclusions suggest that we should seek diversity in both Latin and northern European eugenic models while at the same time placing Portugal within the array of possible versions of eugenics during the first half of the twentieth century.