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This study investigates the American presence and influences in the physical education press to understand the way in which that presence influenced and contributed to the production of a sports culture in the first half of the twentieth century. As historical sources, the study uses periodicals in the field that were published in the period 1932–1950. As a theoretical frame of reference, it uses the repertoire of the New Cultural History in terms of strategy, tactics and devices. It is written in a narrative way, following Ginzburg's style, presenting data and contextualizing them with the historic scene. Clues enabled us to infer that the American presence, which was catalysed by the Brazilian Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), sought to shape a sports culture from physical education and society. This effort reflected the yearning of Brazilian intellectuals for modernisation and an attempt at cultural colonisation by the government of the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This research analyses images of the female body shown in Revista Educação Physica, the first scientific journal of Physical Education published in Brazil, from 1932 to 1945. All the published issues were examined as primary sources, considering texts and images related to women, particularly those concerning their body education by means of Physical Education and sports. By crossing the empirical sources, it was possible to identify a remarkable defence of the female body constructed by eugenics, whose scientific assumptions took into account body shape and appearance. By regarding the body as an art object to be sculpted through the practice of physical activities, Revista da Educação Physica spread images and discourses favouring a clean, beautiful, healthy, white body whose construction should comprise things that were conventionally assigned as imperatives for women: beauty, motherhood and femininity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to describe the influence of medical knowledge on the organisation of school gymnastics in Brazil, in the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth century. For this purpose, the following sources were used: PhD theses approved by the Faculties of Medicine in Rio de Janeiro and Bahia state, and documents from the Academia Nacional de Medicina and the Escola Normal de São Paulo. It was concluded that the hygienist mentality was fundamental for the diffusion of gymnastics in the Brazilian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]