Poor Luzia has died a second time, victim of abusive neglect. Most of what has been lost is completely irreplaceable, like the 12,000-year-old skull of Luzia, found in a cave outside Belo Horizonte in the 1970s. In theory, those theses should be among the easiest things to replace after the fire, right? In theory, only, I am afraid, as in many cases there will be no other existing copies. All now lost in the fire, to my knowledge. Those theses were part of a library of tens of thousands of volumes, most of them rare, some of them unique. It was all part of the same wave of hopeful, committed research-scholarship as citizenship. ![]() It was no coincidence that the same program produced some of the best theses on favelas of Rio de Janeiro and indigenous populations of distant Acre. I would spend the day reading the theses and dissertations produced in the Social Anthropology Program in the late 1970s and early 1980s when that program was one of many nodes of a redemocratizing Brazil discovering and documenting its own plurality, and pressing for expanded citizenship. As they rushed toward the main entrance, I headed around to the back, to the Anthropology Library. More often than not, a group of schoolchildren on a class trip to the museum was on the same trajectory. I took the metro to the São Cristóvão station (always jam-packed, as it is a transfer point for the metro and commuter rail), crossed over the railroad tracks on the pedestrian bridge, passed through the wrought-iron gates and entered the parkland of the Quinta da Boa Vista-an instant transition from one of Rio’s most hectic junctions to one of its most serene reserves. In 2006-2007 I spent several weeks conducting research at the Social Anthropology Library at the National Museum. ![]() I can’t add much to that except my own relatively minor personal experience, and thoughts of the contributions of an illustrious colleague. Eduardo Viveiros de Castro’s reflections have the combination of rage, sorrow, and insight that seems appropriate. So many have spoken eloquently about what the loss means for Brazil ( Theresa Williamson, Cecilia Azevedo, Edésio Fernandes, Rafael Soares Gonçalves, Mario Brum, to name a few…). Like everyone interested in Brazil, history, or museums, I remain saddened and infuriated by the National Museum fire. The following note is based on one posted on Facebook by Bryan McCann. Over the course of the week, RioOnWatch will be publishing a series of notes on the tragic fire that destroyed the National Museum this past Sunday.
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