Twenty-five years of anthropology of Iberoamerica at the University of Salamanca

Abstract

The main milestones of the last twenty-five years of the specialty of "Ibero-American Anthropology" at the University of Salamanca are summarized in the article. The beginnings of the discipline, in which it served as a privileged academic “bridge” between Latin American countries and Portugal, with the Salamanca Studies, an institution that, in the last decades of the 20th century, underwent an evident process of internationalization. The intercampus programmes, the established academic networks, the international congresses, the publications and especially the teaching programmes, first for doctorates and later also for masters, greatly helped to achieve exchange, work and fluid contact between professors and students of both sides of the Atlantic. In this task, we believe that the Anthropology of Ibero-America was a pioneer and played, in conjunction with some other specialties, a very important role for the University of Salamanca, which continues today, even expanding its action to Asian countries, without ever neglecting Portugal. In collaboration with institutions such as the Anthropological Research Institute of Castilla y León, the Center for Brazilian Studies or the Hispano-Japanese Cultural Center, among others, and with the help of famous Iberian and Ibero-American anthropologists, the Anthropology of Ibero-America brought together multiple academic initiatives, social, teaching and research, which are specified in detail, taking account of what has been carried out and a prospective of what, especially after the onslaught of the covid 19 pandemic, can be undertaken in the future.