Virtuoso, templado y ahorrativo. Las prescripciones metodistas e higienistas del cuerpo en México, siglos XIX y XX

Abstract

The importance assigned to the body in early capitalism times was based on Protestant thought and the principles of hygiene. Together they futhered the publication of manuals for education and the safeguarding of the physical health. The idea of personal freedom and autonomy clashed with the extreme vigilance of puritan morality. Two trends of thought, one secular and the oder deeply religious yet very similar in their persuits, combined to perceive the body as the last redoubt for the exercise of the power of self restraint through the exertion of discipline, moderation and temperance.