Disciplinary constitution of school Physical Education in Belém at the end of the 19th century

Abstract

This article analyzes the disciplinary constitution of school Physical Education in the city of Belém do Pará at the end of the nineteenth century, examining how specific forms of gymnastics and sports were historically selected, systematized, and legitimized as appropriate pedagogical practices for body education. Grounded in Foucauldian theoretical and methodological perspectives, particularly the concepts of biopower and biopolitics, the study investigates discursive and non-discursive practices that produced specific ways of seeing, governing, and educating bodies within the context of Belém’s urban modernization. The sources include pedagogical journals, normative texts, and official documents, which reveal the articulation of medical, hygienist, moral, and pedagogical discourses in the institutionalization of school Physical Education. The analysis shows that gymnastics and sports functioned as political technologies of the body, integrated into broader projects of governing life based on ideals of progress, hygiene, and morality. At the same time, popular, playful, and local bodily practices were marginalized. The article concludes that school Physical Education in Belém was constituted as part of a broader disciplinary dispositif, whose normative effects extend beyond the historical period examined.