From the antiquity of man in Argentina’s Plata region to the distribution of antiquities across the map: the organization of the Museu de La Plata’s anthropological colletion, 1897-1930

The article analyzes the criteria for arranging and classifying anthropological collections (that is, anthropology, ethnography, and archeology exhibit rooms) adopted at the Museo de La Plata during 1897-1930. The criterion ultimately selected was arrangement by geographical regions, using a system devised by Enrique Delachaux. The article examines other rules of classification as well, familiar to the museum’s curators and scientists but rejected by them: ethnological, linguistic, and chronological criteria.

natural science museums; anthropological exhibits; Universidad de La Plata; collections; rules of classification; anthropology in Argentina