Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas

Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas
Name	Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas
Established	1949
Type	Research institute
Parent	Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
City	Ciudad de México
Country	México

Contents

Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas is a research institute located at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México campus in Ciudad de México, dedicated to the study of human societies, material culture, and biological variation through interdisciplinary scholarship. The institute traces intellectual lineages to foundational figures and institutions in Mexican and international anthropology such as Manuel Gamio, Alfonso Caso, Franz Boas, Bronisław Malinowski, and connects with museums and archives including the Museo Nacional de Antropología, Archivo General de la Nación, and the Biblioteca Nacional de México. Its organizational context links to Mexican higher education and cultural policy nodes like the Secretaría de Cultura (México), the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, and the Academia Mexicana de la Historia.

History

The institute was founded in 1949 amid institutional developments involving the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, and intellectual currents from scholars such as Alfonso Caso, Manuel Gamio, Miguel León-Portilla, Eduardo Noguera, and correspondences with international figures like Franz Boas, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Julian Steward, Paul Rivet, and A.R. Radcliffe-Brown. Early decades saw projects in collaboration with the Museo Nacional de Antropología, expeditions to regions associated with the Olmec civilization, Teotihuacan, Tenochtitlan, Monte Albán, Palenque, and exchanges with institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution, British Museum, École Pratique des Hautes Études, and the School of American Research. Administrative reforms in the 1970s and 1980s connected the institute to national initiatives like the Plan Nacional de Desarrollo and to intellectual movements associated with Manuel Gamio's successors and critics including Guillermo Bonfil Batalla, Ricardo Pozas, Edmundo O'Gorman, and Germán Dehesa.

Research spans archaeology of sites including Monte Albán, Xochicalco, Teotihuacan, Palenque, Chichén Itzá, Tulum, and Cantona; ethnography involving peoples such as the Nahuas, Maya peoples, Zapotecs, Mixtecs, Purépecha, Tarahumara, and Huichol; bioarchaeology tied to comparisons with collections at the Museo de Antropología de Xalapa and laboratories associated with CONACYT and the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana. Major projects have focused on ceramic analysis linked to comparative studies by Alfred Kidder and Gordon Willey, lithic technology in dialogues with Lewis Binford and Gordon Childe, and landscape archaeology drawing on methods advanced at the Carnegie Institution for Science and the Institute of Archaeology (UCL). Ongoing thematic lines include urbanism informed by parallels to Tikal and Copán, mortuary studies in conversation with research from Harvard University, isotope analysis aligning with protocols from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and digital humanities collaborations with the Getty Research Institute and the Digital Public Library of America.

The institute offers graduate training integrated with the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras (UNAM), the Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales (UNAM), and doctoral programs comparable to those at Universidad de Guadalajara and El Colegio de México, preparing students for careers in institutions such as the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, the Museo Nacional de Antropología, and international centers like the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Pedagogical activities include seminars referencing works by Claude Lévi-Strauss, Marcel Mauss, Victor Turner, Mary Douglas, and methodological training influenced by Lewis Binford, Gordon Willey, and Kathleen Kenyon. Field schools have been conducted in regions associated with collaborators like Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Centro INAH Oaxaca, Centro INAH Yucatán, and international partners including Universidad de Cambridge, Harvard University, and the University of California, Berkeley.

Collections comprise archaeological assemblages from excavations at Teotihuacan, Tula, Monte Albán, Cacaxtla, and Cantona; ethnographic holdings documenting Nahuas, Maya peoples, Zapotecs, and Mixtecs; osteological series for bioarchaeological research curated alongside comparative material from the Museo Nacional de Antropología and deposits exchanged with the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. Laboratory facilities support radiocarbon dating coordinated with laboratories like the Laboratory of Archaeological Science (UNAM), aDNA protocols aligned with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, microscopy and residue analysis reflecting standards at the Smithsonian Institution, and digital repositories interoperable with the Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina y el Caribe, España y Portugal.

The institute publishes monographs, edited volumes, and journals in Spanish and English, maintaining editorial practices comparable to presses such as the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Press, El Colegio de México Press, and series from the University of Arizona Press and Cambridge University Press. Its faculty have contributed to international journals alongside colleagues at Journal of Anthropological Research, Latin American Antiquity, American Antiquity, Current Anthropology, and have organized conferences with partners including the Society for American Archaeology, the International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences, Congreso Internacional de Americanistas, and regional meetings tying to the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. Symposia have hosted scholars connected to institutions like Harvard University, University of Oxford, National Autonomous University of Mexico, and agencies such as the UNESCO.

Category:Research institutes in Mexico