The rise of a southern anthropology: the creation of the Institute of Anthropology in Santa Catarina

Abstract

The continuous examination of the formation and development of the social sciences is part of the intellectual tradition of Brazilian anthropology. The inaugural landmark in the institutionalization of anthropological science in the country is usually taken to be the advent of higher education courses in social sciences in the 1930s. This article looks to contribute to the debate on the history of Brazilian anthropology by analysing the creation and functioning of the Institute of Anthropology at the Federal University of Santa Catarina in the 1960s. This analysis seeks to problematize the idea that the anthropology produced far from the major centres was ‘provincial,’ demonstrating the dynamics assumed in this context in the academic training and the research produced at this institute.