The Santa Rita´s home in the city of Dourados: the origins of care and the ‘civilizing etiquette’ (1965-1982) ; La casa de Santa Rita en la ciudad de Dourados: los orígenes del cuidado y la ‘etiqueta civilizadora’ (1965-1982) ; O Lar Santa Rita no município de Dourados/MS: as origens do atendimento e a ‘etiqueta civilizatória’ (1965-1982)

The history of childhood abandonment and the initiatives to assist this population that demands social assistance and care, go back to the previous centuries, involving various institutions, both religious and state. This article is part of a completed research that dealt with the ‘History of Santa Rita’s Home and Child Care in Dourados MT/MS (1965-1982)’ and aims to present aspects of this entity, from its origins and foundation, its facilities, the main characteristics of its structural organization, especially in the first administration of Santa Rita’s Home, which comprised the period from 1965 to 1982, given that the institution has a long history and, until the present moment, is configured as a space that receives children with a history of abandonment in the city. We will make an approximation with the figurational sociology of Norbert Elias as a theoretical reference, to analyze the sources and institutional documents represented by minutes, diaries, registration books, children's lists, employee time books, invitations, letters. In addition, the documentary corpus comprises four interviews with subjects who were part of the institution's history within the listed time frame. As the results of the research, we infer that Santa Rita’s Home was a necessary institution in view of the high number of abandoned children in the region, which can be evidenced in the analyzed documentation, and the institution was conceived at various times to welcome, assist, care and ‘civilize children’ around standards, norms and a behavioral etiquette that met the standards of society at the time, coincidentally the same group that financed and directed the institution in its first term, which were the women from Dourados belonging to ‘good society’, the ‘ladies of charity’. ; La historia del abandono infantil y de las iniciativas de atención a esta población que requiere asistencia y cuidados sociales se remonta a siglos atrás, involucrando a diversas instituciones, tanto religiosas como estatales. Este artículo tiene como ...