Anthropological approaches in United States studies of Central America, 1930--1970: Implications for Central American anthropology

The main objective of this study is to bring to Central American and U.S. students of anthropology a historical analysis of U.S. anthropological work in Central America from a Central American perspective. This dissertation examines Central American scholars' criticisms of U.S. anthropologists and their diverse research agendas in Central America from the 1930s to the 1960s. This is the period in which U.S. anthropological and archaeological research dominated the academic arena in Central America. I consider U.S. anthropological studies in Central America as products of the historical and cultural contexts within which anthropological research developed. At the same time, in my analysis, I take into account the scholars' academic milieu and the social and political situation in which field research took place in Central America. The research corroborates the fact that U.S. anthropologists have been very important in shaping anthropological knowledge of the prehistory and the ethnology of Central America. On the other hand, I will also show the influence of the Latin American anthropological thought and the impact of prevailing Central American political and economic conditions on U.S. anthropological research agendas in Central America. The dissertation traces the history of this process. It examines the theoretical motivations of U.S. and Latin American anthropologists in Central America, which varied during different historic periods as well as among different institutions and anthropologists.; The period covered by this study is divided in two phases. The first one concentrates on the years between the 1930s to 1945, and shows how U.S. anthropological analyses concerning Guatemala and Central America were impacted by: (1) the nineteenth century evolutionist idea of race; (2) the influence of cultural historicism on early Mexican anthropology; (3) Mexican revolutionary reforms (1910--1935); (4) the Great Depression of the 1930s, and (5) the flowering of nationalist Mexican anthropology. The second phase covers from 1945 to the early 1970s. During this period U.S. anthropological studies in Central America were affected by: (1) the repercussions of WWII strategies of development and the Guatemalan Revolution (1944--1954); (2) neo-evolutionist approaches and modernization theory; (3) U.S. foreign policy on Latin and Central America, and the rise of anti-imperialist movements.