Médicos em Belém: trajetórias, prestígio e patrimônio documental para uma história da população e da família

Abstract

This article analyzes the educational background of physicians in Belém through the nineteenth century, focusing at the importance of this profession in the construction of symbolic capital, prestige and income in that society, and also, looking at how this profession enabled to the young doctors a greater decision-making power in their matrimonial alliances due to the greater independence from their family's patrimony, since they could assemble their own portfolio from the exercise of the medicine. The article also shows the importance of the maps and reports of sanitary doctors to the construction of the History of Population and Family History in Belém, helping us to understand the profile of the population in terms of gender, generation, social status, among other research possibilities.