| Sumario: | The objective of this paper is to analyze the formation of the first concepts on Hygiene as a form of health planning by the public sector and the use of this conception as a social structuring instrument. The search by human societies for solutions to their sanitary problems makes us reflect on the successful match which explains the decision for health to have become not only public but also a state issue. This reflection is permeated by ideas and interests where the concern with Hygiene is highlighted as well as its transformation in a set of private and collective norms, objectifying disease control and the improvement of life in society.Along history, the ultimate health problems that human beings faced had been related to the nature of community life. The relative emphasis on each problem of life in society (pure water and food supply, helplessness relief, improvement of the physical environment, among others) varied along the time and its interrelationship originated Public Health. Sanitation and shelter; cleanliness and religiousness; illness and community are evidences of collective concern in the oldest civilizations. During long periods of History, beliefs and religious practice meant cleanliness and religiousness. People kept themselves clean to look pure to gods eyes, and not for hygienic reasons, such as the current conception. At each historical time, it is possible to relate the concept of hygiene to the cultural and philosophical context, which we intend to look over in the present work, correlating contexts to the use of the hygiene while civilization trend and social practice.
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