The Birth of Physical Anthropology in Late Imperial Portugal
In this article I analyze the emergence of the field of physical anthropology in the metropolitan academic sphere of the Portuguese Empire during the late nineteenth century. I suggest that Portugal’s relatively peripheral position combined with a complex internal conjuncture of political instability and economic impotence gave early Portuguese physical anthropology a less explicitly “colonial” orientation than in other, more central Western European imperial powers. I describe the various national and international exchanges leading to the birth of this naturalist anthropological tradition at the University of Coimbra, drawing particular attention to the foundational role played by the technological assemblage of large osteological collections aimed at the study of the somatic characteristics of the metropolitan “white” population. I situate these technical developments in the context of wider sociocultural and politico-economic processes of both “nation building” and “empire building.” These processes had a strong effect on the kinds of questions asked and the kinds of answers that seemed compelling and acceptable to early physical anthropologists.
Fondements disciplinaires de l'anthropologie française au XIXe siècle. Perspectives historiographiques
Fondements disciplinaires de l'anthropologie francaise au XIXe siecle. Perspectives historiographiques. Claude Blanckaert [31-54]. On confond souvent la notion de discipline scientifique avec son objet d'etude contemporain comme si une grande pensee organisatrice preludait a son emergence et a son accomplissement. Or la science a change d'objets et d'enjeux et n'apparait jamais, d'un point de vue sociologique et historique, sans paradigmes regulateurs ni institutions specialisees. En partant d'une analyse fonctionnelle du concept d'institution, cet article montre que l'anthropologie francaise ne commence pas avec l'ecole durkheimienne du debut du XXe siecle, ainsi que l'affirme l'histoire officielle de la discipline. Il propose un modele alternatif fonde sur la pregnance de l'histoire naturelle de l'homme et la construction disciplinaire de l'ethnologie tout au long du XIXe siecle.
The Millennial of Castile (1943): the historical culture of Spanish Fascism
Abstract The creation of new symbols and historical myths were common practices of nationalist politics, especially in Fascist regimes. In 1943 the Franco regime organized the most impressive historical commemoration celebrated in post-war Spain: the Milenario of Castile. With its heterogeneous mixture of history and spectacle, the Milenario of Castile was by far the greatest historical commemoration promoted by the State during the 1940s. Taking the commemoration of the Milenario as a case study, this article examines the historical culture of Spanish Fascism, as well as the attempts of the Falangist intellectual elite to impose a concrete national narrative in post-war Spain. At the same time, the article analyses the historical discourses and aesthetics displayed throughout the commemoration, underlining its Fascist character, and consequently the transnational dimension of the Fascist politics of the past. Finally, the article reflects on the scope and limits of the process of Fascistisation in Franco's dictatorship, especially in its commemorative culture.