Title: 1. The Birth of Ciencias Antropológicas at the University of Buenos Aires, 1955–1965
Abstract: 1. The Birth of Ciencias Antropológicas at the University of Buenos Aires, 1955–1965 Rosana Guber (bio) and Sergio Visacovsky (bio) History need not focus the past from the viewpoint of the present, but may rather refocus the present itself, obliging us to see current views in a fresh, often unexpected, even disturbing perspective. History may make the present seem troublingly inconsequential rather than comfortingly inevitable. Adam Kuper, "Anthropologists and the History of Anthropology" This paper analyzes the subordination of the academic field to the political domain in twentieth-century Argentina, an issue that has become common sense among scholars and intellectuals who work on the history of the social sciences. In fact the development of academia in Argentina is marked by abrupt political shifts such as right-wing military coups and democratic liberalizations of populistic or even left-wing leanings. However, the effects of the political sphere on academic and intellectual life are far from homogeneous. This aspect still waits for a systematic assessment of the translation of politics into theoretical perspectives, notions, and disciplinary topics. Thus, scientific fields—systems of objective relations constituted by the positions taken by the agents starting from their preceding struggles (Bourdieu 1975)—are crossed by trends and countertrends that affect each discipline and institution in different ways. This is particularly true in Argentina, where only public universities—that is, universities run by the national state—existed until 1958. Although since then private, namely Roman Catholic, undergraduate carreras (degrees) have been offered, public universities have retained their hegemony and prestige in the realm of higher education. However, close dependence upon the state does not entail complete subservience to its powers. Actually, despite the coups of 1930 and 1943, the law setting the University Reform of 1918 initiated a tradition of political and academic autonomy that lasted until 1947. By then Juan Domingo Perón, who had [End Page 1] ruled the country as elected president since 1946, demanded closer and more explicit ties among the university system, the executive power, and the Partido Peronista (Peronist Party). State intrusion into university autonomy came about two years after the September 1955 military-civilian coup, the self-described Revolución Libertadora (Liberating Revolution) that ousted Perón. The 1955–57 intervention was meant to "normalize" —actually to purge—the university of Peronist remnants. Autonomy was restored in 1957 and gave way to the so-called golden age of the Argentine university. In line with these political changes, the new university management attempted to "modernize" and "restore intellectual prestige" to higher education. This meant opening up to the latest scientific developments, using academic knowledge to solve concrete problems, incorporating and developing the latest technology, and filling the university with experts rather than with members of the ruling party (a mandatory requirement during the Peronist years for all those employed as university professors as well as in bureaucratic positions). After Peronism the university was meant to help, even to lead the "development" and "modernization" of Argentine society at large. Therefore, the creation of the licenciatura (a six-year-long undergraduate degree) in psychology, educational sciences, and sociology at the School of Philosophy and Letters (Facultad de Filosofía y Letras) in 1957 was meant to produce experts in empirical research pursuing theoretical work, applied ends, and academic excellence.1 Clinical psychology, Piagetian education, and Parsonian sociology were thus fostered. The Italian accountantturned sociologist Gino Germani became the chairman of the new Department of Sociology and the main protagonist of this academic shift. One year later another licenciatura was established. The licenciatura in Ciencias Antropológicas (undergraduate degree in Anthropological Sciences) appeared to be part of this larger academic movement, but it was not. Born in the second half of the 19th century concurrent with attempts by the Argentine republican state to build a "modern, European, white" nation in a "mestizo" Latin America, in the early 20th century Ciencias Antropológicas had been taken up by amateurs, paleontologists, archaeologists, historians, geographers, writers, librarians, lawyers, and medical doctors. Museums, scientific research institutions, and university courses could be found beginning in the 1920s at many Argentine universities, such as La Plata, Córdoba, Mendoza, Tucumán, Santa Fe, and Paraná (Arenas...
Publication Year: 2006
Publication Date: 2006-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 7
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