"Committed or Scientific? The Southern Whereabouts of Social Anthropology and Antropologia Social in 1960-1970 Argentina

ROSANA GUBER

Other People's Anthropologies. Ethnographic Practice on the Margins

Berghahn Books

Lugar: New York; Año: 2008; p. 110 - 124

This paper explores the meanings that Argentine social scientists, mainly anthropologists, have assigned to “social anthropology”. Here I argue that antropología social became the name for various practices and scopes, but all of them have shared more than strict academic concerns. More than a field of research based on ethnography and fieldwork, antropología social refers to the relationship of social sciences and intellectuals’ political involvement, usually alluded to by means of an anti-colonial discourse in a largely independent country. This paper explores the trajectories of the main trends in Argentine antropología social and their uses of theory, empirical data and writing in the midst of political turmoil and institutional breakdown.