Herbert Baldus: life and work — Introduction to the Indigenism of a German-Brazilian americanist

Abstract

Herbert Baldus was a German-Brazilian anthropologist who played an important role in the development of anthropological research and knowledge in Brazil. His scientific work was intimately linked to his own life, spent mostly in this country, where he devoted himself to teaching, to research and scientific divulgation, as well as to the establishment of an official Indian policy bent on the preservation of ethnic populations. His theoretical contributions ranged from initial investigations on material and non-material culture to functional and structural approaches, while he also established the foundations for the study of cultural change of Indian societies in contact situations.