Isabel Ramírez Castaneda (1881–1943) was one of the first Mexican women to work as an

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and

ethnologist Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology) ...

. Affiliated with the National Museum (

Museo Nacional de Antropología The National Museum of Anthropology ( es, Museo Nacional de Antropología, MNA) is a national museum of Mexico. It is the largest and most visited museum in Mexico. Located in the area between Paseo de la Reforma and Mahatma Gandhi Street within ...

) for most of her career, she investigated the

Nahua The Nahuas () are a group of the indigenous people of Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. They comprise the largest indigenous group in Mexico and second largest in El Salvador. The Mexica (Aztecs) were of Nahua ethnicity, a ...

folklore of Central Mexico and classified many archaeological collections. Ramírez Castañeda carried out the first archaeological excavation led by a woman.Rutsch, M. (2003). Isabel Ramírez Castañeda (1881–1943): una antihistoria de los inicios de la antropología mexicana. Cuicuilco, 10(28), 0.Martinez, A. R. (2006). Zelia Nuttall and Isabel Ramirez Castañeda: two ways to practice and write archaeology at the beginning of the 20th Century in Mexico. cadernos pagu, (27), 99–133.Martínez, A. R. (2008). Pensar una metodología feminista desde la arqueología: Cuando el cuerpo de la mujer toca el cuerpo de la nación. Feminismos en la antropología: nuevas propuestas críticas, 141–155.

Biography

Isabel Ramírez Castañeda was born in 1881 in Milpa Alta, a small town close to Mexico City. She originally studied to be a primary and preschool teacher at the Escuela Normal de Profesoras and worked as such for a number of years. She regularly attended

Ateneo de la Juventud Ateneo may refer to: Cultural institutions * Ateneo de la Juventud, a society of Mexican writers, philosophers and intellectuals * Ateneo de Madrid, a private cultural institution located in the capital of Spain * Ateneo de Ponce, a nonprofit, ...

conferences. In 1907 she met anthropologist

Eduard Seler Eduard Georg Seler (December 5, 1849 – November 23, 1922) was a prominent German anthropologist, ethnohistorian, linguist, epigrapher, academic and Americanist scholar, who made extensive contributions in these fields towards the study of p ...

and ethnologist Caecilie Seler-Sachs in Mexico. Isabel helped study and classify archaeological artifacts and worked as an assistant during archeology lectures. In 1906 she won a scholarship to study archaeology, history and ethnology at the National Museum (

), which she was affiliated to for much of her career. Isabel also met

Franz Boas Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the movements known as historical ...

when he visited Mexico and she became a sort of protégée of his. With the Selers, Ramírez was introduced to the study of

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and she accompanied them in several expeditions to archaeological sites and took up the study of ancient architecture and pottery, as the first female archaeologist in Mexico. She participated in excavations at the

Maya Maya may refer to: Civilizations * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (Ethiopia), a populat ...

site of

Palenque Palenque (; Yucatec Maya language, Yucatec Maya: ), also anciently known in the Itza Language as Lakamhaʼ ("Big Water or Big Waters"), was a Maya city City-state, state in southern Mexico that perished in the 8th century. The Palenque ruins dat ...

in 1911. She was a native speaker of

Nahuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...

and contributed a series of folktales from Milpa Alta to

who published them (without acknowledging her as the author) in 1924. She died in 1943.

References

1881 births 1943 deaths Indigenous Mexicans Nahua people Mexican Mesoamericanists Women Mesoamericanists 20th-century Mesoamericanists People from Mexico City Mexican women archaeologists Mexican folklorists Mexican women folklorists {{cultural-anthropologist-stub