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Heloísa Alberto Torres

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Heloísa Alberto Torres

Heloísa Alberto Torres (17 September 1895 – 23 February 1977), also known as Dona Heloísa,[1] was Brazilian anthropologist and museum director.[2]

Biography

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Heloísa Alberto Torres was born on 17 September 1895 in Rio de Janeiro. Her father Alberto Torres was a journalist and politician. Edgar Roquette-Pinto(1884 – 1954), who was an assistant professor of anthropology at the National Museum of Brazil and a friend of Alberto Torres, brought Heloísa as an intern to the Anthropology section of the Museum.[3][4] She became one of the first women to join the National Museum along with Bertha Lutz.[5]

In the beginning of her career, she had “no formal training in anthropology”,[1] but she gradually developed her interest on it. The excavation of ancient ceramics from Marajo Island was her “notable fieldwork”.[6] In 1935 she was appointed as vice director of the National Museum, and in 1938 she became the director, a position she held for nearly two decades, until her retirement in 1955.[1][6]

She used her “wide network of relations in both politics and Brazilian public administration” to generate adequate resources for training anthropologists to study the indigenous peoples in Brazil.[7] While she was the director, she signed an agreement with Columbia University to advance ethnological studies in Brazil.[8][9] Museum's collections were used to teach the visiting scholars.[10]

She played an important role in developing “Brazilian indigenist policies”.[7]

She died on 23 February 1977 in Rio de Janeiro.

References

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  1. ^ a b c Cooper Cole, Sally (1 January 2003). Ruth Landes: A Life in Anthropology. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. p. 170. ISBN 978-0-803-21522-1. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  2. ^ Gaillard, Gerald (1 June 2004). The Routledge Dictionary of Anthropologists. Oxon: Routledge. p. 252. ISBN 978-1-134-58579-3. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  3. ^ Lucia Araujo, Ana (6 February 2015). African Heritage and Memories of Slavery in Brazil and the South Atlantic World - Student Edition. Amherst, New York: Cambria Press. p. NA. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  4. ^ Da-Gloria, Pedro (19 June 2017). Archaeological and Paleontological Research in Lagoa Santa: The Quest for the First Americans. New York City: Springer. p. 120. ISBN 978-3-319-57466-0. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  5. ^ Horta Duarte, Regina (15 November 2016). Activist Biology: The National Museum, Politics, and Nation Building in Brazil. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press. p. 188. ISBN 978-0-816-53201-8. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  6. ^ a b Hemming, John (2019). People of the Rainforest: The Villas Boas Brothers, Explorers and Humanitarians of the Amazon. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 73. ISBN 978-1-787-38195-7. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  7. ^ a b de L'Estoile, Benoît (22 September 2005). Empires, Nations, and Natives: Anthropology and State-Making. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. p. 221. ISBN 978-0-822-38710-7. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  8. ^ Solovey, Mark (13 May 2021). Cold War Social Science: Transnational Entanglements. London: Springer Nature. p. 133. ISBN 978-3-030-70246-5. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  9. ^ Da-Gloria 2017, p. 121.
  10. ^ Solovey 2021, p. 134.
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