Varieties of the Primitive: Human Biological Diversity Studies in Cold War Brazil (1962–1970)

Abstract

ABSTRACT In recent years, anthropologists, science scholars, and historians of science have shown growing interest in the history of research in physical anthropology in the post–World War II period, although most of the studies concentrate on North America and Europe. Here we focus on the history of human biological diversity research in South America in the 1960s. We carry out a comparative analysis of the research programs coordinated by two influential North American researchers (the geneticists Newton Morton and James Neel) in Brazil. We analyze the genesis of the two projects in light of the scientific and sociopolitical alignments of the period, and we find that the research was strongly tied to the context of the Cold War. We also address the scientific perspectives and choice of study populations (Indians and mestiços), as well as how the researchers attempted to construct far‐reaching scientific models pertinent to the human species as a whole based on the concept of “primitiveness.” We argue that the research programs that Morton and Neel initiated in the 1960s are basic to the understanding of the history of physical anthropology not only in Brazil but also on a global scale in the decades following World War II. [ history of physical–biological anthropology, human population diversity, population genetics, science studies, Newton Morton, James Neel, Brazil ]