Chronology of a Discipline: Social and Cultural Anthropology in Spain

Abstract

Anthropology in Spain has been strongly institutionalised in recent years through its presence in academic spaces. Nowadays the discipline is pursuing its institutionalisation through professional development outside the academic field. In this text, we present what has been called the first proto Anthropology in the light of the discussion about who should construct the history of the discipline. Then we developed a series of events that allow us to mark what we have called the “chronology of a discipline”, which we have found useful to situate the reader in the Spanish context. Starting by highlighting the links between Social Anthropology and folklore studies in its beginnings, we followed a line through the discipline developed in contemporary times. We focus our descriptions on the development of ethnographic museums, the associations of scholars and intellectuals that gave rise to the discipline’s first scientific journals and its subsequent institutionalisation in the academic world. Here we highlight the studies on the process of identity construction in the transition from dictatorship to democracy. We conclude our chapter by focusing on the development of the periodic anthropological congresses that have given shape to the discipline, and that serve as a reference space for thinking about Social and Cultural Anthropology as a profession.