Imbelloni, José (1885-1967)
Born in Italy, José Imbelloni (1885-1967) emigrated to Argentina in 1908, where he began his career as an anthropologist in 1921, with previous training in the natural sciences. His anthropological work of a craniological and historical-philological nature contributed to the debates on the settlement of the American continent and the diffusion of cultural cycles. During the 1930s, as Head of the Physical Anthropology Section of the Museo de Ciencias Naturales, Imbelloni gained greater visibility with the publication of Epítome de Culturología (1936), where he summarised the doctrine and method of the Cultural-Historical School and contributed his own empirical studies. In 1948 he took over the direction of the Museo Etnográfico, created the Instituto de Ciencias Antropológicas at the University of Buenos Aires, and the journal Runa. During these years he established strong ties with academic sectors of Peron’s regime and became one of the world’s leading figures in Americanist anthropology. Imbelloni developed a culturalist-racialist approach that was not free of polemic tones, but his career is fundamental for understanding the development of Argentine anthropology.
Keywords: Physical anthropology | Linguistics | Diffusionism | Vienna School of Ethnology | Museum curator | Argentina | Americanism | Cultural circles/Kulturkreise | Antiquity of American Man | Craniology | Runa | Ethnology Museum
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