Civilise the people, build the nation: scientific and literary association and education in Minas Gerais (Brazil) at the beginning of the Brazilian empire

Abstract

Over the last 200 years in Brazil, the notion of “public” has been established to mean the same as the notion of “state”. Sérgio Buarque de Holanda and, more recently, Marilena Chaui point out that the very old tradition of the appropriation of public goods by the private sector has been updated.1 However, the understanding of what is considered public has not always been the same. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, scientific and literary associations became responsible for public elementary education in provinces and municipalities.2 The study of these associations provide an indication that, in those times, the meaning of “public” had not yet been reduced to “state”, as it would be in the Latin American political culture of the following century.3 This understanding of the “public” in education during the first half of the nineteenth century is key to revising the configuration of the public (state) education systems in the following century, when education came to be understood as the unique and exclusive responsibility of the nation state.4 It is a weighty task to question the political culture and the concepts that were formulated at the beginning of independent life in Brazil, especially for those who, like us, believe that the public dimension of citizen life should not be reduced to those customs that our nation state conceived and implemented throughout the past centuries. 1de Holanda, Raízes do Brasil, 26th ed. (São Paulo: Cia das Letras, 2008); Chauí, “Público, Privado, Despotismo,” in Ética, ed. A. Novaes (São Paulo: Companhia de Letras, 1992). 2At that time, there was another meaning (which was not less important) about public education that tugged at the idea of education that was offered outside of the family or domestic setting. That meaning will not be explored in this article, regardless of its importance. 3Regarding this matter, see Jean-Pierre Rioux, “A associação em política,” in Por uma história política, ed. René Rémond (Rio de Janeiro: Editora FGV, 2003); Jean François Sirinelli, “Os intelectuais,” in Por uma história política, ed. René Rémond (Rio de Janeiro: Editora FGV, 2003). 4For a closer examination of the role of civil association organisations during those times in Spanish America and its relationships with public education, see the article by Marcelo Caruso and Eugenia Roldán Vera, “El impacto de las nuevas sociabilidades: sociedad civil, recursividad comunicativa y cambio educativo en la Hispanoamerica postcolonial,” Revista Brasileira de História da Educação 11, no. 2 (2011), 15–52.