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of the Histories of Anthropology

Francisco Adolfo Coelho (1847-1919) is one of the most outstanding researchers in Portuguese literature and popular traditions and was one of the major figures in the establishment and development of Portuguese ethnography and ethnology between 1870 and 1910. As a collector himself, he contributed to broadening the discipline to new subjects in rural economic and social life. He joined the European folklore networks of the time and his collection of folk tales was published in London in 1885. Coelho participates in reflections on national identity and destiny, at a time when Portuguese society felt orphaned by its “glorious past” of maritime and imperial expansion.

Keywords: Folklore | History | Philology | Ethnology | Evolutionism | Comparative mythology | Collectors and collections | Pedagogy | Second half of the 19th century | First quarter of the 20th century | Portugal | Folk traditions | Folk mythology | Folk arts | Oral literature | Cultural diffusion

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