Lorena Ojeda-Dávila

The Tarascan Project and the USA-Mexico Anthropological Research, 1939-1976

Lorena's proposal seeks to recover unpublished or little-known works and investigations that were conducted by pioneering anthropologists and researchers between 1939 and 1976 in the P’urhépechan1 region of Michoacán. She has focused on the works of authors who were connected to or inspired by this project, with an emphasis on North American researchers, or those affiliated with USA institutions. During this period substantial government research funds were available, leading to a prolific and unusual amount of academic labor that warrants an in-depth historical study. Some of these investigations began during the administration of President Lázaro Cárdenas (1934-1940), and several of them had their origin in the Tarascan Project, but others were independent and even critical of it. The Tarascan Project was an indisputably political collaboration between academic institutions and Mexican and American government agencies. The goal of the project was to carry out anthropological research activities in the indigenous regions of Michoacán. Its official duration was from 1939 to 1947, but its influence persisted for decades. The main institutions that financially and academically supported the project in Mexico were the National Polytechnic Institute, the National Institute of Anthropology and History, and the Department of Indigenous Affairs. In the United States, support primarily came from the University of California and the Smithsonian Institute, but also from the Carnegie Institute of Washington, the Social Science Research Council, the Department of State, and other institutions. Some researchers from other universities were affiliated with the Tarascan Project, for example Donald Brand or Frances Leon (and Morris Swadesh) from UNM.