Current Sociology http://csi.sagepub.com Sociological Textbooks in Argentina and Mexico, 194060 Diego Ezequiel Pereyra Current Sociology 2008; 56; 267 DOI: 10.1177/0011392107085035 The online version of this article can be found at: http://csi.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/56/2/267 Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com On behalf of: International Sociological Association Additional services and information for Current Sociology can be found at: Email Alerts: http://csi.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://csi.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Citations (this article cites 4 articles hosted on the SAGE Journals Online and HighWire Press platforms): http://csi.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/56/2/267 Downloaded from http://csi.sagepub.com at Universita Di Bologna - Sistema Bibliotecario d'Ateneo on April 24, 2008 © 2008 International Sociological Association. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. Sociological Textbooks in Argentina and Mexico, 1940–60 Diego Ezequiel Pereyra CS National Council of Scientific and Technological Research, Gino Germani Institute University of Buenos Aires, and Professional Council of Sociology, Argentina abstract: It is commonly believed that the teaching of sociology spread in Latin America only after 1960. However, sociological textbooks were published before then in response to increasing demand. A comparative analysis is made of eight books, four each from Argentina and Mexico; these are a broad cross-section of those then available to local students and cited in reading lists. Common and divergent topics, traditions, concepts, research methods, theories and cross- references are sought, and reasons for the similarities and differences are explored, with special attention to possible US influence. This teaching material is placed in the context of the local institutionalization of sociology at this period, and the history of sociological ideas in the region. keywords: Argentine sociology ✦ Germani ✦ Mexican sociology ✦ Poviña ✦ teaching sociology ✦ textbooks Introduction The general importance of the production of textbooks for the history of sociology is exemplified in the case of Latin America, where the combi- nation of American empirical interest and European philosophical tradi- tion placed the region as a singular experience to study the development of modern scientific sociology. The analysis of textbooks is useful to see retrospectively the situation of a field and to contrast that picture with common historical narratives of that time (Brooke, 1998; Lundgren and Bensaude-Vincent, 2000). One of the most surprising aspects of the histor- ical development of sociology in Latin America is its early institutional emer- gence, though professionalization of the field was relatively delayed. Several chairs of sociology were established in Argentina and Mexico during the Current Sociology ✦ March 2008 ✦ Vol. 56(2): 267–287 © International Sociological Association SAGE (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore) DOI: 10.1177/0011392107085035 267 Downloaded from http://csi.sagepub.com at Universita Di Bologna - Sistema Bibliotecario d'Ateneo on April 24, 2008 © 2008 International Sociological Association. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. Current Sociology Vol. 56 No. 2 Monograph 1 early 20th century. The lectures given required textbooks, so numerous handbooks of sociology were published by local teachers from the 1900s, both in response to student demand and to make teaching easier; the need for textbooks increased abruptly when more sociological chairs spread through the region after 1940. Historical work on local sociology has not studied the role and nature of that teaching material. Hence, in this arti- cle I reconstruct the teaching of sociology in Argentina and Mexico from 1940 to around 1960 through the analysis of textbooks. A sample of Argentine and Mexican textbooks is studied, looking at topics, concepts, research methods, authors, theories and references. Discussion of when a book should or should not be regarded as a text- book is not entirely closed, but the selection here is made because these books were used as teaching materials in sociology courses. One on meth- ods is included as an example of the issue at that time, usually described as lacking empirical investigation. Eight widely used university textbooks published from 1940 to 1961 were chosen (Castiglione, 1961; Medina Echavarría, 1940, 1941; Orgaz, 1942; Poviña, 1950; Recasens Siches, 1948; Treves, 1942; Uribe Villegas, 1957). These do not include every sociologi- cal textbook in those countries from that period, or even all those most used, but they represent a broad cross-section of those available for local professors and students at the time; four were published in Mexico and four in Argentina. Seven authors are included, three from Argentina, one from Mexico and three European refugees: one Italian, who migrated to Argentina, and two from Spain, who went to Mexico. Copies of all these books are in the library of the Social Sciences School at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), and in the most important libraries all over Latin America. All are directed at the same student level, even if their profile and interests differ. They vary in size and scope, but maintain a quite sim- ilar structure despite some differences. The aim is not to characterize each textbook precisely; detailed sum- maries are not given, and the texts are not related to the authors’ total academic work. The aim is to see, first, how they define sociology and social research; second, how they compare with each other in coverage, approach and structure; third, how the references among them and to other texts, especially American works, help understand the level of local authors’ reading, throwing light on how international links have influ- enced Latin American sociology. This is placed in the context of other channels for the diffusion of ideas, such as journals and meetings, to understand progress in the local institutionalization of sociology and the general situation of the professional and intellectual field in the region. The data are contrasted with the usual home narrative of lack of up- to-date sociological information, and the critical situation of countries within a peripheral area. 268 Downloaded from http://csi.sagepub.com at Universita Di Bologna - Sistema Bibliotecario d'Ateneo on April 24, 2008 © 2008 International Sociological Association. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. Pereyra Textbooks in Argentina and Mexico The Teaching of Sociology in Argentina and Mexico Sociology in Latin America had an early institutional development. At the beginning of the 20th century, when European universities hardly accepted the creation of chairs for the specific teaching of sociology, Latin American higher education acknowledged the need to teach the new dis- cipline. New chairs of sociology were rapidly established throughout the region: Bogotá (1882), Buenos Aires (1898), Asunción (1900), Caracas, La Plata and Quito (1906), Córdoba, Guadalajara and Mexico City (1907). (This institutional development occurred later in Brazil, where sociologi- cal chairs were created in the 1920s [Poviña, 1959].) The expansion of chairs in Argentina and Mexico was slow but steady. There were nine chairs in Argentina in 1940, a very similar number to Mexico; by 1950, the figures had gone up to 16 and 19, and by 1956 to 17 and 21, respectively. Sociological teaching in Latin America originated on the basis of legal stud- ies, in an attempt to replace the usual learning of natural law by a combination of positivist anthropology and public law (Soler, 1968). Sociology was taught first in faculties of law and philosophy, and later in education and economics. Many local scholars believed that sociology would be an appropriate model to place the teaching of law and social sciences within both a scientific context and the positivist tradition. They judged therefore that sociology could be useful in explaining the changes of local society in the framework of the national state and nation-building. It was seen as able to give answers on the emergence of modernity and capitalism in Latin America. (In Mexico, the role of indigeniza- tion in the national society was also a factor.) Courses were limited to one, or exceptionally two, years. Their syllabus usually included the history of sociol- ogy, the definition of the discipline and its differences from other social sci- ences, and a review of the situation of sociology in different countries, usually France and Germany, but also sometimes the US, Italy or Spain. Another frequent topic was sociological methods, and the debate between natural and cultural sciences (Mendieta y Nuñez, 1947, 1950; Poviña, 1959: 290–4). During the 1940s, local universities changed when they noticed their deci- sive role in the production of empirical knowledge of social reality. It was an institutional innovation when teaching of sociology combined in 1940 with actual research practice, and social research centres were established in both Argentina and Mexico. The Instituto de Sociología (Institute of Sociology) was inaugurated in 1940 at the UBA School of Philosophy and Literature (FFyL). It gathered around 40 undergraduate and postgraduate students for training in social research. An Instituto de Investigaciones