ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the case of Colombia, that in addition to the analogy of society as an organism in constant transformation, the analogy of the human body as a combustion engine advanced social thought in Latin America in important ways at the end of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, and added layers of meaning to notions of race, work, and progress. In the framework of the projects of construction and consolidation of Latin American nation-states, today suggestive historical analyses relates the production of scientific knowledge on the body with processes of representation of the nation, the territory and the population, as well as with modern strategies for discipline and regulation. The chapter represents an effort to highlight the importance of analyzing in tandem a series of knowledge, practices, and representations that allow for a more powerful way to explain how social modern thought was configured in Colombia.
