Uruguay: “ The famous little notch where there was no data at all”: The Carlos Maeso Collection and the production of bioanthropological knowledge in Uruguay.

Abstract

This article investigates a chapter in the history of Uruguayan bioanthropology through the analysis of archives and interviews involving the Carlos Maeso Collection and the research of anthropologist Mónica Sans between 1986 and 1987. It primarily addresses three themes: the historicization of bioanthropological discipline in Uruguay; the importance of working with collections and records; and the debate about the conditions of bioanthropological knowledge production from the perspective of the geopolitics of power. It shows how, through the integration of different materialities with diverse theoretical-methodological perspectives, it is possible to construct a narrative that accounts for a disciplinary history considering the meanings and perspectives of its actors, without neglecting the materials. In this particular case, it narrates how Sans's work reflects the development of the discipline in our country and its connection with the national, regional, and global context. This represents a contribution to understanding the development of the discipline in our country and some perspectives to be considered in the future: the ethical management of collections with human bone remains, the incorporation of ethnographic perspective in bioanthropology, the role of the subject in knowledge production, the construction of a local agenda, and the anthropologization of the discipline.