Anthropology at the Frontier: A Project of Excellence from the Periphery. The Beginning of Anthropological Training at the Catholic University of Temuco

Abstract

This article highlights some milestones and key figures in the development of the Anthropology program at the current Universidad Católica de Temuco in its initial stage, between 1970 and 1978. It was a professional training program that took shape in the early 1970s and, in a conducive context for the development of social sciences in Chile, managed to articulate a proposal that brought together a group of academics and researchers with a common goal: to create an excellent anthropology program. Taking into account these background elements, a discussion is proposed regarding the idea of the periphery as an indicator of a condition that determines the intellectual quality of knowledge production, as well as the contribution made from different places (continents, countries, regions). It is explained how collaborative efforts at various levels result in innovative, progressive, and consistent contributions that, given certain socio-historical conditions, may disarticulate but also reemerge.