Salvador Santiago Lorenzo Debenedetti (March 2, 1884September 30, 1930) was an

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

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 ...

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

and

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

. He was involved in the restoration of

Pucará de Tilcara The Pucará de Tilcara is a pre-Inca fortification or '' pukara'' located on a hill just outside (approximately a 15-minute walk) the small town of Tilcara, in the Argentine province of Jujuy. The location was strategically chosen to be easily def ...

, an ancient fortification in what today is

Jujuy Province Jujuy is a province of Argentina, located in the extreme northwest of the country, at the borders with Chile and Bolivia. The only neighboring Argentine province is Salta to the east and south. Geography There are three main areas in Jujuy: * ...

. He was also the originator of Student's Day in Argentina, an informal holiday celebrated on September 21.

Biography

He was born to Lucia Amoretti and Bernardo Debenedetti, a soft drink manufacturer, in the southern

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

suburb of

Avellaneda Avellaneda (, ) is a port city in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the seat of the Avellaneda Partido, whose population was 342,677 as per the . Avellaneda is located within the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area, and is connected ...

, in Argentina's

Buenos Aires Province Buenos Aires (), officially the Buenos Aires Province (''Provincia de Buenos Aires'' ), is the largest and most populous Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of th ...

. Debenedetti attended secondary school at the San José Academy, and enrolled at the

University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires ( es, Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBA) is a public university, public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Established in 1821, it is the premier institution of higher learning in the country and one o ...

School of Letters, where he became a protégé of Professor

Juan Bautista Ambrosetti Juan Bautista Ambrosetti (August 22, 1865May 28, 1917) was an Argentine archaeologist, ethnographer and naturalist who helped pioneer anthropology in his country. Life and work Ambrosetti was born in Gualeguay, Entre Ríos Province, in 1865. He ...

. Elected president of the student body in 1902, Debenedetti persuaded the school's regents to adopt a Student's Day. He later earned a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

and Letters in 1909, as succeeded his mentor as both curator of the

ruins, and of the university's Museum of Ethnography. He was invited to join the

International Congress of Americanists The International Congress of Americanists (ICA) is an international academic conference for research in multidisciplinary studies of the Americas. Established August 25, 1875 in Nancy, France, the scholars' forum has met regularly since its incept ...

, as Ambrosetti had been, during the group's 1929 symposium in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. Upon his death in 1930, his ashes were buried alongside Ambrosetti's at the foot of the Tilcara ruins.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Debenedetti, Salvador 1884 births 1930 deaths People from Avellaneda Argentine people of Italian descent University of Buenos Aires alumni Argentine anthropologists Argentine archaeologists Argentine curators 20th-century archaeologists 20th-century anthropologists