Africanist anthropology during Francoism: the Bernardino de Sahagún Institute, 1939-1951

Administration and economic life of the Instituto

The basic structure of the Institute was based on the legislation passed in 1940 - with the creation of the Consejo - and 1941, with the foundation of the IBS. Each institute was led by a director, a vice-director, and a secretary appointed by the education ministry at the proposal of CSIC’s executive committee.²¹Boletín Oficial del Estado, nº 43, February 17, 1940, p. 1.203. The Institute could also employ “directors, section chiefs, assistants, scholarship holders, and students. It may also appoint associate and extraordinary lecturers.”²²Boletín Oficial del Estado, nº 43, February 17, 1940, p. 1.203. The staff also included administrative assistants, a position held by Paula Pérez de Barradas and Elena Malaguilla Sánchez. As illustrated in Graph 1, the institute’s payroll increased gradually throughout the period.

The functions of the executive officials were perfectly outlined by the institute’s regulations. The director must ensure that the institution met its targets, both as a museum and a research centre, as well as suggest research plans, supervise publications, sign off expenses, draft the annual report, and propose courses and public talks. The vice-director was to step in in the absence of the director and direct one of the Anthropobiology sections. The secretary executed the director’s and vice-director’s orders, kept inventory of the archive and processed official documents, acting as liaison official with the Consejo’s general secretary. He also had to oversee invoices and expenses and keep the register of the institute’s meetings. The vice-secretary acted as standing secretary in the absence of the former.²³ Reglamento Instituto “Bernardino de Sahagún”, 30 octubre 1942. AGA. Educación. Fondo CSIC. Caja 8537. Carpeta Instituto “Bernardino de Sahagún”. 1942.

As shown in Table 1, the leading figures generally had a direct relationship with the university, as mandated by the CSIC’s foundational decree. The leadership of the institution changed little over the years: José Pérez de Barradas - Anthropology professor at Universidad Central de Madrid - and Santiago Alcobé Noguer - Anthropology professor at Universidad de Barcelona - were the institute’s Director and Vice-director from the foundation of their respective sections.

During the early years of the existence of the Consejo, the figure of the “collaborator” remained ill-defined. At first, most researchers working for institutes combined teaching with research. The figure of “collaborator” was created by order of the executive committee on June 28, 1945, and it was established that “their scientific careers will be carried out exclusively in the Consejo, and will be incompatible with other activities elsewhere” (López Sánchez and Fernández Gallego, 2021, p. 23López Sánchez, J. M., and Fernández Gallego, A. (2021) A imprenta y tírese: 80 años de la editorial CSIC. Madrid: CSIC.):

A competitive selection process to hire collaborators was created by decree on July 5, 1945:

Most collaborators hired by IBS had previously held scholarships at the Instituto. The number of collaborators gradually increased, barring a sharp surge with the change of Patronato and a gradual decrease after the creation of the Centro de Estudios de Etnología Peninsular (see Graph 2); the number of collaborators at the latter remained stable throughout this period. Although definite data is difficult to come by, it can be said that of the 33 collaborators hired by the IBS, eleven had some connection with the university, upholding that privileged relationship between university circles and the CSIC.

Meanwhile, the position of scholarship-holders fluctuated more, as it was directly related to the specific needs of research projects. The position was regulated from the Consejo’s foundation. From the start, applicants had to pass a test of theoretical knowledge, and from 1945 also demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language, a requisite that was to become more demanding over time. As such, in order to apply for one of the scholarships offered by the Patronato “Santiago Ramón y Cajal” in 1951, applicants must

Scholarships holders were hired for one academic year, with the possibility of an extra year if their work was required (examples of students who had their scholarship extended included Aurelio Capmany Ferrés and Adelaida González Almejún). Their salaries were substantially lower than those of fully qualified researchers, and were not paid during the summer:

The figure of scholarship-holders was especially sensitive to changes, as illustrated by Graph 3. It was especially important until the change of Patronato, but afterwards it became virtually invisible.

On the other hand, despite the enormous sway of the new Catholic and conservative ideological values of the regime, several women gained positions of relevance in the IBS. The meeting held by the Executive Committee on September 9, 1942 included several appointments to women, including a section chief:

The number of female collaborators was also significant, including Adelaida González Almejún, Marina Bocanegra, Mercedes González Giménez, and María Caridad Robles Mendo. However, despite the appointment of some women to positions of responsibility, something in itself exceptional, subsidiary posts - clerks, librarians, and assistants - fell to women without exception, like in other institutes of the CSIC (e.g. Mª Luisa Fernández Cabeza and Elena Malaguilla Sánchez). In Instituto “Jerónimo Zurita,” for example, most scholarship-holders, administrative assistants, and librarians were women who had their access to leadership posts barred (Fernández Gallego, 2014, p. 62Fernández Gallego, A. (2014) “Historia e historiadores en la posguerra española (1939-1951).” Trabajo Fin de Máster Inédito. Universidad Complutense de Madrid.).

However, even if in the early years some women climbed to positions of responsibility at the IBS, in 1949 they began having problems in the workplace and with the director. In his personal diary, Pérez de Barradas writes the following for August 1, 1949: “the palaver with the assistant has begun terribly, and I have Doña Mercedes and the idiotic Caridad jumping about me. Scientist women are somewhat worse than mute ones. I am concerned about this.”²⁹ Diario personal Pérez de Barradas, 1 de agosto 1949. I-VIII-1949 a XXIII-X-1949. Ayuntamiento de Madrid, Archivo Personal de Pérez de Barradas. Unidad II. FD2005/1/47. In that same year, Mercedes González Gimeno and Caridad Robles Mendo were demoted to the position of collaborators. According to José Pérez de Barradas, this was because, after eight years in leadership positions they had shown “their inefficiency, lack of discipline, and incompetence.” He also claimed that Mercedes González Gimeno had “not come to work for months at a time, without justification or one that suits her marital status.” Concerning Caridad Robles Mendo, he added that “from 1945, Miss Roble’s performance, despite my warnings and those of secretary Fernández Cabeza, has not been up to scratch.”³⁰ Oficio de Pérez de Barradas a Emilio Fernández Galiano y Valentín Matilla. Motivos destitución de María Mercedes González Gimeno y Caridad Robles Mendo, 13 de enero 1950. AGA. Educación. Fondo CSIC. Caja 8602. Carpeta “Bernardino de Sahagún”. 1950. He concluded that

These demotions only prove that their original appointments had been an anomaly, which the director of the IBS corrected at the first opportunity, keeping women in subsidiary positions as secretaries and administrative assistants.

The CSIC’s foundational decree - title third, article 10 - established that the Consejo was to administer its budgetary resources autonomously, allocating funds to each institute according to need. The funds allocated Instituto “Bernardino de Sahagún” and the Centro de Estudios de Etnología Peninsular never went over 2% of the CSIC’s total annual budget.

As illustrated by Graph 4, the budget fluctuated widely during this period. The central years were particularly stable, probably because of the need to set up the new sections in Barcelona and Valladolid. The drop in funding in 1948-1949 may be the direct outcome of the creation of a large number of institutes and Patronatos in these years, without the total budget being increased significantly. On the other hand, the funds allocated to the Centro de Etnología Peninsular remained stable throughout the period.

These staff and budgetary matters had a direct bearing on anthropological work and are an indication of the relevance of anthropology for CSIC, for IBS was able to constantly hire collaborators and scholarship-holders in the context of international isolation and a deep economic crisis. The creation of new sections and their geographical outreach were features shared by other institutes of CSIC.

Publications and research avenues

Since the IBS did not have its own journal, until 1945 their research was published by the journal Atlantis. Actas y Memorias de la Sociedad Española de Antropología, Etnología y Prehistoria, a quarterly publication managed by the SEAEP. This led to disputes between both bodies - in addition to those caused by them sharing the same space - throughout the period. The foundation of the journal Trabajos del Instituto Bernardino de Sahagún (1945) finally gave the IBS its own publication outlet and reduced the number of clashes with the SEAEP. The six-monthly journal Antropología y Etnología, also managed by the IBS, was founded in 1949 to publish the institute’s anthropobiological and ethnological works.

These journals, and the books published by CSIC, were the Institute’s, and later also the Centro de Estudios de Etnología Peninsular’s, main publication outlets. One major research avenue was anthropobiology, and in this the IBS largely followed biological and physical doctrines with some racist and eugenicist undertones. Works concerned with biological and physical anthropology, strongly connected with issues of hygiene and social medicine, covered many pages of the Institute’s publications. The institute’s very regulations determined that anthropobiological studies (which were divided into different branches: race studies; osteology; human inheritance; constitutional typology; diet; psychotypology; endocrine typology; infant growth; hemato-anthropobiology; and female anthropology)³² Reglamento del Instituto “Bernardino de Sahagún” de Antropología y Etnografía, 23 julio 1942. AGA. Educación. Fondo CSIC. Caja 8537. Carpeta Museo Etnológico 1942. must be based on the study of “healthy and normal children, men, and women.”³³ Reglamento del Instituto “Bernardino de Sahagún” de Antropología y Etnografía, 23 julio 1942. AGA. Educación. Fondo CSIC. Caja 8537. Carpeta Museo Etnológico 1942. Attention to anthropobiology and racial improvement at the IBS, however, went beyond this legal directive, also including anthropobiology courses, targeted at women, to help recognise “possible pathological and constitutional endocrinal alterations, inheritance-related accidents, etc. of Spanish women and children.”³⁴ Oficio de Pérez de Barradas al Secretario del CSIC, 30 octubre 1942. AGA. Educación. Fondo CSIC. Caja 08537. Carpeta Instituto “Bernardino de Sahagún” 1942.

The IBS’s regulations also singled out the study of “customs, art, and popular beliefs in Spain, Morocco, and the Colonies.”³⁵Boletín Oficial del Estado, nº 279, October 3, 1941, p. 7703. This ethnological approach, which focused on native peoples from Iberia, Latin America, and North Africa, was particularly important for anthropological practice during early Francoism, and helped consolidate a research avenue that was to retain its importance throughout the dictatorship. This renewed interest for Africanist studies not only resulted in the foundation of the Instituto de Estudios Africanos (IDEA), attached to the CSIC’s Patronato Diego de Saavedra Fajardo, but also to the creation of other Africanist institutes.

As anthropology was made to serve national-Catholic values - based on a full identification of national and religious features, forged by 19^th-century Catholic traditions that went back to Jaime Balmes and had its most prominent champion in Menéndez Pelayo - the State understood that “recovering our former splendour and prestige means reconquering Catholicism for society and the State, creating an organic society built corporately, and resuming stable relations with our American ex-colonies, under the banner of Hispanity” (Botti, 1992, p. 25Botti, A. (1992) Cielo y dinero: el nacionalcatolicismo en España (1881-1975). Madrid: Alianza Editorial.). With this, Franco tried to appeal to the collective imaginary by means of rhetoric and symbols - including the colonial discourse - working to integrate and nationalise the people to legitimise his regime (Ibidem, p. 196).

The colonial discourse used Romantic images and stereotypes that had been circulating from the late 18^th and early 19^th century (Santos Moro, 2014, p. 236Santos Moro, F. de (2014) “Las formas de representación del africano en el Museo Nacional de Antropología.” Anales del Museo Nacional de Antropología, Madrid, XVI: 234-263.), and linked them with the idea of modernity and progress; evolutionist notions were wielded to define Spain as a civilised society, and Africa as a “primitive” one that needed modernising (Van der Berghe, 1967, pp. 53-54Van der Berghe, P. (1967) Raza y racismo: introducción. New York: John Wiley & Sons.). As such, the colonial discourse was grounded on scientific racialism; while “racism” was seen as a “belief in an essential difference inscribed in the very nature of human groups, that is, in their physical features” (Ibidem, p. 24), racialism was seen as the incorporation of racism to scientific studies (Van der Berghe, 1967Van der Berghe, P. (1967) Raza y racismo: introducción. New York: John Wiley & Sons.; Taguieff, 1995). Scientific racialism, therefore,

This idea was not new. Anthropological-cultural evolutionism emerged in Great Britain and America in the 19^th century, and authors such as Burnett Tylor and Morgan believed that all societies evolved from inferior and simple systems, such as savagery and barbarism, to the fully developed form of civilisation that characterises complex societies (Restrepo, 2016, p. 11Restrepo, E. (2016) Escuelas Clásicas del Pensamiento Antropológico. Cuzco: Editorial Vicente Torres Lezema.). Evolutionist theories in anthropology were brought to Spain by Antonio Machado y Núñez and Francisco María Tubino, who introduced Ernst Haeckel’s work and created the Sociedad Antropológica de Sevilla (1871). Although this theory was not predominant among Spanish anthropologists, it was particularly important for the creation of the colonial discourse.

The colonial discourse developed by the IBS rested on a specific conception of cultural evolution and the staunch defence of the idea of Hispanity, but mostly aspired to “bring the aborigine to the truth, cooperating for this in the work of Catholic Missions,” while creating “a patriotic conscience; disseminating the language and virtues of the Spanish race with its Humanistic character; avoiding the rootlessness of natives through the improvement of their living conditions; and thus ensuring their total adherence to Spain and the ideals of Hispanity” (Ndongo Bidyogo, 1998, p. 171Ndongo Bidyogo, D. (1998) España en Guinea. Construcción del desencuentro: 1778-1968. Toledo: Sequitur.). According to Gonzalo Sanz Casas, Francoist Africanism was marked by a “propaganda-ridden, essentialist and activist ideology” (Suarez Blanco, 1997, p. 320Suárez Blanco, S. (1997) “Las colonias españolas en África durante el primer franquismo (1939-1959). Algunas reflexiones.” Espacio. Tiempo y Forma, Serie V, Historia Contemporánea, 10: 315-331. doi: https://doi.org/10.5944/etfv.10.1997.2945 ). In this way, the regime created Hispanotropicalism, grounded on three main ideological pillars: “Hispanity; Lusotropicalism, and the ‘regenerationism’ of Joaquín Costa and 19^th-century Spanish Africanists” (Nerín i Abad, 1997, p. 10-11Nerín i Abad, G. (1997): “Mito franquista y realidad de la colonización de la Guinea Española.” Estudios de Asia y África, 32 (19): 9-30.).

Following the notion of colonialism used by Van der Berghe, colonisers intended to bring progress to colonised peoples, “that is, authorise them to identify with the conquering or dominant nation” (Van der Berghe, 1967, p. 54Van der Berghe, P. (1967) Raza y racismo: introducción. New York: John Wiley & Sons.). Responding to this sense of moral, economic, and social superiority and to a paternalist view of the State, Spain had a civilizational duty towards African peoples; evangelising, “civilising,” “educating” and bringing progress to its African colonies (Calvo Calvo, 1997, p. 173Calvo Calvo, L. (1997) “África y la Antropología española: la aportación del Instituto de Estudios Africanos.” Revista de dialectología y tradiciones populares, LII (2): 169-185. doi: https://doi.org/10.3989/rdtp.1997.v52.i2.363 ). This would enable African colonies to “progress” into civilised societies - as Spanish society defined itself - and reach their full potential. As noted by Pérez de Barradas referring to America, “the work of missionaries should be encouraged, because their zeal to know the Indians is valuable not just for them or for the small groups within which they act, but for science more broadly and other missions” (Pérez de Barradas, 1946, pp. 21-22Pérez de Barradas, J. (1946) Manual de Antropología. Madrid: Cultura Clásica y Moderna.). In order to bring progress, therefore, Africans, their customs and experiences, must be understood because “knowing an object in this way is dominating it” (Said, 2013, p. 59Said, W. (2013): Orientalismo. Barcelona: Debolsillo.). Naturally, this idea of domination rested on resources that Europeans had been using for a long time. Among these, the most efficient was the deployment of science and knowledge as ways to measure, assess, describe, represent, classify, and categorise peoples taxonomically, establishing their differences and, obviously, their shortcomings, especially vis-à-vis civilisation. This is the reason behind the proliferation of anthropobiological works, which simply described and measured physical features, but also the eminently descriptive nature of ethnological works, which made few contributions to cultural anthropology. This discipline, by its very nature, had little to add to the targets assumed by the leading Spanish anthropologists of the 1940s.

This mission of extending progress was formalised with the creation of the Patronato de Indígenas and the Tribunal of the Race, which aimed to “improve the customs of aborigines” (Bosch de la Barrera, 1947, p. 30Bosch de la Barrera, J. (1947) “Tribunal de la Raza.” África: revista de tropas coloniales, 71-72, pp. 30-33.). Even the Head of State, Franco, assumed the main arguments of this colonial discourse:

The arrival of colonial discourses to the growing field of Africanism triggered “the need to study the common origin of Iberian and North African communities from a variety of perspectives” (Cañete, 2021, p. 18Cañete, C. (2021) Cuando África comenzaba en los Pirineos. Una historia del paradigma africanista español (siglos XV-XX). Madrid: Marcial Pons.). For this reason, the IBS managed to fund numerous research visits to the African colonies to pursue the Institute’s two main research avenues: anthropobiology and ethnology. The results were published not only in Atlantis. Actas y Memorias de la Sociedad Española de Antropología, Etnología y Prehistoria and Trabajos del Instituto Bernardino de Sahagún, both directly related to the IBS, but also in the journal África: revista de tropas colonials, which depended on the Instituto de Estudios Africanos.

Anthropobiological studies responded to the need to “characterise the population medically in the context of colonisation. A practice rooted in hygienist principles that intended to identify shortcomings as a tool of colonisation and reform” (Cañete, 2021, p. 249Cañete, C. (2021) Cuando África comenzaba en los Pirineos. Una historia del paradigma africanista español (siglos XV-XX). Madrid: Marcial Pons.). The IBS’s two main anthropobiologists in Africa were Santiago Alcobé Noguer and Julio Cola Alberich, whose racial mosaic - a term coined by Santiago Alcobé - allegedly enabled “a better understanding of the peoples that contribute to the formation of a culture” (Calvo Calvo, 1997, p. 175Calvo Calvo, L. (1997) “África y la Antropología española: la aportación del Instituto de Estudios Africanos.” Revista de dialectología y tradiciones populares, LII (2): 169-185. doi: https://doi.org/10.3989/rdtp.1997.v52.i2.363 ). Based on these principles, in 1944 Santiago Alcobé visited the Sahara for a year, “under the auspices of the Instituto de Estudios Políticos.” This resulted in an anthropobiological report on the nomads of the Spanish Sahara (CSIC, 1946, p. 232Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (1946) Memoria de la Secretaría General 1945. Madrid: CSIC.). Two years later, he was invited by the Royal Anthropological Institute (London) to give a talk about these groups, which was eventually published in the November 1947 issue of Man (CSIC, 1948, p. 287Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (1948): Memoria de la Secretaría General 1946-1947. Madrid: CSIC.). In 1948, the Dirección General de Marruecos organised an expedition to Spanish Guinea, under the direction of José María Díaz de Villegas y Bustamante, and the IDEA and Colonias another one to the Gulf of Guinea (Suarez Blanco, 1997, p. 319Suárez Blanco, S. (1997) “Las colonias españolas en África durante el primer franquismo (1939-1959). Algunas reflexiones.” Espacio. Tiempo y Forma, Serie V, Historia Contemporánea, 10: 315-331. doi: https://doi.org/10.5944/etfv.10.1997.2945 ).³⁷ José Díaz de Villegas was the director of the Instituto de Estudios Africanos, and founder in 1946 of the African Museum, in the Prime Miniter’s Office (Sastre Sánchez, 2018). The latter expedition was directed by Alcobé Noguer, whose specialist team included Jean Rouch,³⁸ In the IBS’s payroll he features with his name in Spanish: Juan Roger, Jean Roger o Jean Rouge. Fernández Cabeza, and José Pons Rosell. The project aimed to undertake the anthropobiological study of the Guinean population; in the course of three months, they examined 1398 locals, divided into male and female members of the Pamú, Combe, and Bubi groups. They also carried out a study on depigmentation, “based on established inherited lines” (CSIC, 1950a, p. 159Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (1950a) Memoria de la Secretaría General 1948. Madrid: CSIC.). On his return, Alcobé Noguer gave a talk in Madrid, within the IDEA’s conference programme, entitled Los pamues en el complejo racial del África negra y Una expedición científica a los territorios españoles del Golfo de Guinea (CSIC, 1950b, p. 197Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (1950b) Memoria de la Secretaría General 1949. Madrid: CSIC.). Using these same results, Alcobé Noguer and Augusto Panyella presented another talk, Estudio cuantitativo de la exogamia en los pomues (fang) de la Guinea Continental Española, at the 14^th International Sociology Conference, held at Rome, (CSIC, 1951, pp. 154-155Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (1951) Memoria de la Secretaría General 1950. Madrid: CSIC.). Finally, in 1951 they presented another talk entitled Biodinámica de las poblaciones actuales de la Guinea Continental española to the IV Conferencia Internacional de Africanistas Occidentales (CSIC, 1952, p. 178Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (1952) Memoria de la Secretaría General 1951. Madrid: CSIC.).

For his part, Julio Cola Alberich lived in the Spanish Protectorate of Morocco for five years, studying the locals and trying to establish their cephalic somatoscopy and analysing their tattoos. In order to gain a better understanding of North African kebias, he paid special attention to individuals from the region of Mejala.³⁹ Memoria Publicaciones Instituto “Bernardino de Sahagún”. AGA. Educación. Fondo CSIC. Caja 09321.Carpeta Instituto “Bernardino de Sahagún” 1951. This study led to his doctoral thesis, entitled Estudio antropológico de la región del Lucus (Marruecos español), where he presented 35 metric variables taken on a total sample of 915 Moroccans.⁴⁰ Solicitud de integración al Museo Etnológico. AGA. Educación. Fondo CSIC. Caja 08693. Carpeta Patronato “Santiago Ramón y Cajal” 1952.

Numerous researchers associated with the IBS contributed to these anthropobiological studies in North Africa, including María de las Mercedes González Gimeno, who in 1942 analysed the first anthropological series of women in the Protectorate of Morocco, which was published under the title “Contribución al estudio de la mujer bereber en Marruecos” (CSIC, 1942, p. 163Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (1942) Memoria de la Secretaría General 1940-1941. Madrid: CSIC.). Alongside Alcobé Noguer, Carlos Crespo visited Spanish Guinea, where he studied a “hitherto unknown group of Pygmies, whose presence had never been attested so close to the coast” (CSIC, 1948, p. 285Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (1948): Memoria de la Secretaría General 1946-1947. Madrid: CSIC.). During the same visit, he collected various Bubi and Pamu items in Guinea, which came to expand the Anthropological Museum collection. Also, during the same visit, Fernández Cabeza undertook a constitutional study of Guineans, leading to a talk sponsored by the Dirección General de Marruecos y Colonias (CSIC, 1950b. p. 195Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (1950b) Memoria de la Secretaría General 1949. Madrid: CSIC.). In 1951, he published his results in the monograph entitled La persona pamúe desde el punto de vista biotipológico (CSIC, 1952, p. 175Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (1952) Memoria de la Secretaría General 1951. Madrid: CSIC.). Finally, in 1950, José Pons Rosell published a monograph with the results of the Guinean expedition under the title Impresiones dermopapilares de indígenas de la Guinea española, en relación con otras poblaciones (CSIC, 1951, p. 155Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (1951) Memoria de la Secretaría General 1950. Madrid: CSIC.), in which he examined finger patterns, sexual and bimanual differences, and empirical frequency of genes using quantitative methods, which allowed him to compare these results with those published for other populations (Pons Rosell, 1951). This research also led to the publication of an article in the IDEA’s Archivos: “Huellas dactilares en negros de la Guinea española” (CSIC, 1952, p. 177Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (1952) Memoria de la Secretaría General 1951. Madrid: CSIC.).

Both the institute’s regulations and everyday scientific practice promoted ethnological research with which to establish an ethnic connection between Spain and Africa: “An assimilationist approach that emphasised similarities between Iberian and African communities” (Cañete, 2021, p. 249Cañete, C. (2021) Cuando África comenzaba en los Pirineos. Una historia del paradigma africanista español (siglos XV-XX). Madrid: Marcial Pons.). More specifically, the aim was to distinguish between Arab and Berber elements, as the latter were regarded as an “autochthonous population substratum, related to the Iberian” (Ibidem, p. 249). The two main contributors to this ethnological approach were Julio Cola Alberich and Jean Rouch. Cola Alberich tried to complement the physical description of Moroccans with culturalist-inspired works, leading to an important publication entitled Escenas y Costumbres marroquíes (1950), in which he tried to “evoke the essence of Moroccan life (…). Reflecting the folklore, religious traditions, and customs that permeate life” (Cola Alberich, 1950, p. 7Cola Alberich, J. (1950) Escenas y costumbres marroquíes. Madrid: CSIC.). In a similar vein, Jean Rouch - a member of Alcobé Noguer’s team in Spanish Guinea - began cooperating with the IBS in 1949, making important contributions to the institute’s studies in North Africa and equatorial Africa, including “Notas para un estudio antropológico del bubi de Fernando Poo,” in which he carried out “an anthropological, ethnological, and linguistic study following Sullivan” (CSIC, 1950a, p. 157Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (1950a) Memoria de la Secretaría General 1948. Madrid: CSIC.). He also analysed magic and totemism in primitive societies, leading to the publication of “Estudio etnológico sobre las máscaras” in 1950. Jean Rouch’s main contribution to Africanist ethnology, however, was the ethnological documentary “Útiles para la enseñanza y la divulgación” (Ibidem, p. 159).⁴¹ He carried out several documentaries, such as Au pays des mages noirs (1947), Les Magiciens de Wanzerbé (1948), Initiation à la danse des possédés (1949), La circoncision (1949), Chasse à l’hippopotame (1950), Cimetières dans la falaise (1951), and Yenendi: les hommes qui font la pluie (1951) (Rouch y Feld, 2003).

This ethnological research was supported by other activities undertaken by both the IBS and the Anthropological Museum. The IBS increased its library’s ethnological catalogue, and the museum expanded its collections throughout the period, especially objects from Spanish Guinea and Moroccan textiles and ceramics. Similarly, the foundation of the Ethnological and Colonial Museum in Barcelona on February 5, 1949 added new collections from Africa, America, Japan, and the Philippines (CSIC, 1951, pp. 196-197Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (1951) Memoria de la Secretaría General 1950. Madrid: CSIC.). Anthropological research in the Spanish African colonies was also boosted by the creation of the Instituto de Estudios Africanos and the publication of results in África: revista de tropas coloniales. This journal was totally in line with the IBS’s research approach, publishing articles on anthropobiology and ethnology. Several collaborators of the IBS contributed to the journal, increasing the number of publications on Africanist anthropology.

África printed several anthropobiological works, such as Antonio Linares Maza’s - collaborator of the IBS, Medical Captain and director of Malaga’s psychiatric clinic - “El tipo humano en nuestro territorio del Ifni” (1943) (Fig. 1). The work included anthropometric studies on Boamaranis and Teknas, and reached the conclusion that they were nomadic groups in a stage of “primitive barbarism” (Linares Maza, 1943, p. 36Linares Maza, A. (1943) “El tipo humano en nuestro territorio del Ifni.” África: revista de tropas coloniales, 18. pp. 35-38.). The study had a double aim:

Similarly, before his visit to the Sahara, in 1944, Alcobé Noguer published the article “Perspectivas para el estudio antropológico del Sáhara español” (Alcobé Noguer, 1944a, p. 16Alcobé Noguer, S. (1944a) “Perspectivas para el estudio antropológico del Sáhara español.” África: revista de tropas coloniales, 25, pp. 16-21.), in which he presented the research approaches to be adopted by the expedition, namely the combination of anthropobiology and ethnology. Martín Almagro, a prehistorian, rather than an anthropologist, led in cultural issues, and Alcobé Noguer in biological ones. In that same year, Alcobé Noguer also published “Noticia de la expedición antropológica al Sáhara español” (Fig. 2), where he explicitly stated that his work was based on the “anthropobiological study of modern Saharan populations” (Alcobé Noguer, 1944b, p. 63Alcobé Noguer, S. (1944b) “Noticia de la expedición antropológica al Sáhara español.” África: revista de tropas coloniales, 31-32, pp. 63-68.). In the article, however, he left himself room for some culturalist ethnology, making an analysis of everyday life in the Sahara, explaining the nature of the territory, and giving a brief ethnological description of Sahrawi people, including their houses, clothing, and customs.

Cola Alberich was the last of the IBS’s collaborators to publish in the journal. Following a visit to Morocco in 1947, he published “Etnología de la vivienda rural marroquí” (Cola Alberich, 1947, p. 30Cola Alberich, J. (1947) “Etnología de la vivienda rural marroquí.” África: revista de tropas coloniales, 63-64. pp. 30-33.), in which he makes a purely ethnological study of Moroccan houses, including materials and morphology

A year later he published “La estatura en Beni Urriaguel” (Cola Alberich, 1948, p. 32Cola Alberich, J. (1948) “La estatura en Beni Urriaguel.” África: revista de tropas coloniales, 81-82pp. 32-35.), in which he addressed ethnological and biological issues, including anthropometric data and their comparison with those collected in Spain.

África also published anthropological works on the Spanish colonies by authors with no links with the IBS. For instance, Juan Fontán y Lobe, Abelardo de Unzueta y Yuste, and Ángel Flores Morales published ethnological and culturalist works that followed the same doctrinal tenets as those sponsored by the IBS. In 1942, Juan Fontán y Lobé published an article entitled “Poblaciones negras del África Ecuatorial” in which he analysed the houses, tattoos, and customs of the Bubi.

In 1943, Abelardo de Unzueta y YusteUnzueta y Yuste, A. de (1943) “Pueblos playeros de la Guinea Continental Española.” África: revista de tropas coloniales, 21. pp. 30-33. published “Pueblos playeros de la Guinea Continental Española,” in which he carried out an ethnological analysis of the region’s groups; finally, in 1948 Ángel Flores MoralesFlores Morales, A. (1948) “Razas del Sáhara Español.” África: revista de tropas coloniales, 83-84. pp. 55-58. published an anthropobiological work entitled “Razas del Sáhara Español,” in which he examined the origin of Sahrawi races.