La administración de la salud en Santiago de Chile colonial: normatividades, saberes médicos y gobierno del cuidado (siglos XVII–XVIII)

This research examines the configuration of health administration in colonial Santiago of Chile during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, focusing on the tensions between Christian charity, customary medical practices, and the processes of professional regulation promoted by the Spanish Crown. Through an analysis of the Hospital of San Juan de Dios and the Royal Tribunal of the Protomedicato, the study explores how licensed physicians, religious agents, local authorities, and extra-academic practitioners contested legitimacy and jurisdiction in a context marked by institutional fragility and scarcity of resources. Rather than conceiving colonial health as a homogeneous system or as a linear path toward modern medical professionalization, the research advances a situated approach that emphasizes the permeability between norms and practices and the coexistence of multiple medical cultures. Methodologically, the study combines institutional analysis, prosopography, and a critical reading of colonial archives, articulating imperial and local scales to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of health governance in colonial Hispano-America.