Abstract
In this lesson, Nathan Wachtel discusses the history of his discipline, going back to the great founders at the time of the discovery of America : Bernardino de Sahagun and Bartolomé de Las Casas, he then emphasizes the complementary nature of history and anthropology, so that we understand why Central and South American societies represent a veritable laboratory for research into crossbreeding, acculturation processes, syncretism, collective memories and the relationship between identity and otherness.
We discover, for example, the acculturation of the " new Christians " or Marranos, who came in large numbers to settle in America, or that Indianness is the result of a centuries-old process of biological and cultural crossbreeding.
