Reglementering av prostitution och arbetare i Rio de Janeiro under början av 1900-talet

Abstract

This article examinesthe social organization of the sex trade in the city of Rio de Janeiro during the period known as the First Republic (1889-1930). In the context of “non-regulationist” police’s vigilance in the turn of the 20th Century, and in the light of changing labour relations (only in 1888, in fact, slavery was abolished), the social experiences of prostitutes in Rio de Janeiro are revealing of many aspects of workers lives in that urban setting. Judicial records involving prostitutes show not only popular uses of the law, but also urban workers’ gendered sociability connected to prostitution.