Heloísa Alberto Torres Explained

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

Biography

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] Museum's collections were used to teach the visiting scholars.

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

She died on 23 February 1977 in Rio de Janeiro.

Notes and References

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