La invención de los ancestros: el «patagón antiguo» y la construcción discursiva de un pasado nacional remoto para la Argentina (1870-1915)

Abstract

We intend to demonstrate that the existence of an «Antique Patagon» was an idea stemming from the political need —at the end of the 19th Century— of imagining a remote past for the young Argentinian nation. This article studies in historical context a group of anthropological writings of the 1870’s and 1880’s. Firstly, those of the Argentinian F.P. Moreno and the German-Argentinian H. Burmeister. Secondly, those of the Argentinian E. Zeballos. The former show the relation between nationalist interests and the scientifical debates of the time; the latter are the historical narrative corresponding to those interests.