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| Société des Américanistes | |
|---|---|
| Name | Société des Américanistes |
| Native name | Société des Américanistes de Paris |
| Formation | 1895 |
| Headquarters | Paris |
| Fields | Ethnology; Anthropology; Archaeology; Linguistics |
Société des Américanistes is a Paris-based learned society founded in 1895 dedicated to the study of the Indigenous peoples, cultures, languages, histories, and societies of the Americas. It has served as a forum linking scholars associated with institutions such as the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, the Collège de France, the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, and the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and has contributed to comparative research involving collections at the British Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, and the American Museum of Natural History.
The society was established during an era shaped by expeditions like those of Alexandre de Humboldt and institutions such as the École pratique des hautes études and the Musée de l'Homme, reflecting concurrent developments in scholarship exemplified by figures like Paul Rivet, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and Alfred Métraux. Early members engaged with debates sparked by publications from the Royal Geographical Society, exchanges with researchers at the Brooklyn Museum, and comparative work referencing artifacts in the Museo Nacional de Antropología (Mexico City). The society navigated intellectual currents including diffusionist dialogues influenced by the International Congress of Americanists and methodological shifts following the formation of the International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies.
Membership has included curators from the Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, professors affiliated with the Université de Montréal, researchers from the Smithsonian Institution and the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, as well as doctoral students associated with the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Chicago. Governance has featured elected presidents and secretaries drawn from the Collège de France and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, with advisory links to the Centre national de la recherche scientifique and collaborations with the Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques.
The society publishes proceedings and the journal continuing traditions seen in serials like the Bulletin de la Société de Géographie and engages in editorial practices comparable to those of the Journal of Latin American Studies and the Latin American Antiquity. Its bibliographic output has appeared alongside monographs by scholars such as Paul Rivet, Marcel Mauss, and Louis Léger, and has cited comparative analyses involving collections at the Museo del Oro (Bogotá), field reports from Amazonas (Brazilian state), and ethnohistorical sources from archives in Seville and Lima. Contributions often intersect with research strands associated with Sapir–Whorf hypothesis debates exemplified in studies on Nahuatl and analyses of Quechua linguistic corpora.
Annual meetings and symposia convene specialists who have also presented at venues like the International Congress of Americanists, the American Anthropological Association meetings, and the Linguistic Society of America conferences. Sessions have covered topics ranging from archaeology in the Andes and the Amazon Basin to ethnohistory of the Caribbean and linguistic revitalization among speakers of Guarani and Aymara, drawing panels featuring curator-scholars from the Museo Nacional de Antropología (Madrid), academics from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and researchers from the University of British Columbia.
The society has maintained archival holdings and facilitated access to collections paralleling those at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, the Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, and European colonial-era repositories in Lisbon and Madrid. Its archives contain correspondence with expeditions to Amazonas (state), field notebooks comparable to those of Bronisław Malinowski and Alfred Kroeber, photographic series documenting sites such as Tiwanaku and Chavín de Huántar, and catalogues referencing objects now in institutions like the British Museum and the Smithsonian Institution.
Notable figures associated with the society include ethnographers and archaeologists in the tradition of Paul Rivet, structuralists influenced by Claude Lévi-Strauss, linguists working on Quechua and Nahuatl, and curators active at the Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac and the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle. Leadership over time has connected with personalities linked to the Collège de France, the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, and cross-Atlantic collaborators at institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution and the Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia.
The society's impact is visible in scholarship cited by journals like the American Anthropologist, the Journal de la Société des Américanistes and referenced in monographs by Jacques Soustelle, Roger Bastide, and Marcel Griaule. It has influenced museum practices at the Museo Nacional de Antropología (Mexico City), repatriation debates involving collections in Paris and London, and interdisciplinary dialogues among historians associated with the Bibliothèque nationale de France, linguists connected to the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, and archaeologists working in the Andes and the Amazon Basin.
Category:Learned societies of France Category:Anthropology organizations Category:Organizations established in 1895