Key considerations in the analysis of the development of social anthropology in Spain

Abstract

The objective of this article is to present a brief overview of the long history of anthropology in Spain. Of primary importance is positioning this history both within Spain’s wider social and political contexts, and also against the development of scientific research throughout the country. Methodologically, this study is based on extensive existing literature concerning the history of the discipline, from the start of the twentieth century to contemporary times, which informed the decision to structure this writing in four sections, segmenting the period of history covered. The first section considers the primary or formative development of a regionalist Spanish ethnography at the beginning of the twentieth century. Following this, in the second section, we explore the Francoist era when the twentieth century was well underway; this was a period marked by the strong influence of foreign research on the establishment of teaching methods and practical approaches to anthropology. In the third section, we observe how, as Spain transitioned from a dictatorship to a strong democratic state formed of autonomous regions, a uniquely Spanish anthropology emerged and, as we discuss in the fourth section, the country entered a time of consolidation and institutionalisation throughout the wider field of Spanish scientific endeavour. In this way, we examine Spanish anthropology from the context of intellectual development not dissimilar to that taking place on a global scale. The article concludes with an exploration of the current challenges facing Spanish anthropology.