Historia de la antropología americanista española (1892-1992)

Abstract

This thesis deals with the history of American studies in Spanish cultural anthropology in a historical period spanning one hundred years (1892-1992). It analyzes the slow introduction of this science in Spain thanks to the active participation of key figures in the intellectual world. Special attention is paid to the various currents and schools of thought involved in this process and how these various intellectual models are assimilated, complementing the ideological reality of Spain in each of the moments studied. The social and economic reality of Spain and links between material reality, ideologies, policies and science are analyzed. In this approach analogies between science and ideology are established, since all science is necessarily immersed in its own ideological framework, within the larger scope of society. However, there is no necessary primacy of material reality against ideological elements, as both aspects are studied as shaping each other. In this case foreign influences in thought are also important, serving in many cases to crack the dominant national paradigm in a given period. Moreover, the current thesis is not limited to analyzing the social, cultural and economic reality of Spain, but the broader context in which the country is located. Therefore, it investigates Europe’s ideological, philosophical and social framework, also from a broader historical perspective than that which is mentioned in the text’s title. Thus, modern precedents of key concepts that reach Antiquity and intellectual currents that prevail mainly in Europe since the dawn of Modernity are examined arnd analyzed. Such phenomena are important if we consider that Spain traditionally occupies a peripheral position both economically and intellectually regarding the West, so that the ideas from other geographical regions are those which mainly shape Spanish thought. As one is unable to study a discipline in isolation, this analysis takes into account the history of other related specialties such as physical anthropology, prehistory, history or archeology. Ultimately it examines by what means, processes and resistances, and to what extent Spain is integrated within the frame of the modern enlighted West, through the thread of American anthropological studies...