This text by the anthropologist Darcy Ribeiro establishes the following theoretical categories: “testimony-peoples,” “new peoples,” “transplanted peoples,” and “emerging peoples” as the basis for the study of the histo-cultural configurations to be found throughout the American continent. The study examines the undeniable changes that took place over the course of five centuries that altered the traditions of the original cultures of Native American populations and transformed them into spurious societies with “alienated cultures.” That process was rooted in the economic exploitation to which the ethnic Latin American people were subjected throughout the colonial period. Ribeiro identifies the phenomenon of “acculturation” as the fundamental cause of the economic and sociocultural backwardness of the Latin American region. He is convinced that the “self-image” of Latin American people, faced with their inability to advance, functions as an ideological force that ultimately determines the various levels of underdevelopment that can be seen across the continent.

Darcy Ribeiro (1922–1997), the anthropologist, author, and politician, played an important role in the founding of the Universidade de Brasília (1961), and the drafting of Brazilian education policies and legislation. He was also responsible for the creation of the Memorial da América Latina in 1989.  

This document is part of the series Estudos de Antropologia da Civilização that was put together by the anthropologist, author, and politician Darcy Ribeiro (1922–1997); however, due to its extremely important scope, it is considered here as a separate work. The first edition of As Américas e a civilização appeared in 1969 and was published in three volumes in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Ribeiro wrote the text while he was living in exile in Montevideo (1964–76), during the difficult years of the long military dictatorship that cast its shadow over Brazil for more than two decades. The time he spent in Uruguay broadened his perception of Latin America, particularly with regard to the cultural and political history of the continent as a whole. He acknowledges that his experience as an exile helped him to understand the similarities between Brazil and other Latin American countries, and put him on an equal footing with other intellectuals who were suffering the same hardships as he was, such as Mário Pedrosa in Santiago de Chile, Ferreira Gullar in Buenos Aires, and Francisco Julião in Mexico City. This allowed him to see Brazil as part of Hispanic America, and got him thinking about how his country might pursue its economic and cultural development.  

[As complementary reading, see the following articles by Darcy Ribeiro in the ICAA digital archive: “A América Latina existe?” (doc. no. 807738); “América Latina Nação” (doc. no. 807699); “Arte índia” (doc. no. 1110737); “Arte plumária dos índios Kaapor” (doc. no. 1110739); “Capítulo Arte: a vontade da beleza” (doc. no. 1110735); and “Introducción: la cultura” (doc. no. 807756)].