Richard E. Latcham
| Richard E. Latcham | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||
| Born | 1869 | ||||||
| Died | 1943 | ||||||
| Residence |
Chile [1901] La Serena, Chile [1905] Santiago, Chile [1911] Biblioteca Nacional, Santiago de Chile, S. America [1927] | ||||||
| |||||||
Contents
Notes
Office Notes
House Notes
R.T, in 1903 list
1936.02.25 The following were reappointed Local Correspondents, their appointment dating from 1936:... Mr R.E. Latcham (Chile), ...
1939.02.21 The following names were removed from the list of Local Correspondents: ... Mr Richard E. Latcham ...
Notes From Elsewhere
RICHARD E. LATCHAM was born in Bristol, England, on March 5 , 1869, and died in Santiago de Chile on October 16, 1943. He was educated in the local Bristol schools and the Polytechnic Institute of London, where he eceived a degree in civil engineering in 1888. He immediately accepted a post with the Chilean Departamento de Colonizacih and reached Chile on August 22, 1888. Although he retained his British nationality, he remained in Chile for the rest of his life, except for brief visits to neighboring countries.
At the time of Latcham’s arrival, very little was known about the Araucanian Indians except that they were fierce fighters. In 1876, however, they had
signed a treaty of peace with the Chilean Government and had agreed to the opening up of their country. Latcham’s job was to survey and build roads.
To this end, he proceeded to Temuco, now a flourishing city, then a frontier military post consisting of a few log huts. For the next five years he lived
almost entirely with the Mapuche Indians.
Latcham’s scant knowledge of Indians when he reached Chile was based on the novels of James Fenimore Cooper, which led him into many bizarre and amusing situations, but he soon learned to speak the Mapuche tongue well. In the course of five years in the native rukas, he became a friend of many individuals and obtained a first-hand knowledge of their mentality and manner of living before outside contacts had brought changes. His unrivalled opportunities for observation, combined with his keen intellect, and his passion for facts, made his subsequent publications of outstanding value.
In 1893, Latcham moved to Santiago where he taught English at the Instituto lnternacional until 1897 when he went to La Serena. There he again
taught English in the local Liceo and also worked as a mining engineer. In 1902 he returned to Santiago. His first technical anthropological publications appeared in 1903.
Latcham was a self-trained anthropologist. He once explained to the writer the difficulties he overcame to enter this field. In 1882, the great Chilean
scholar, Jos6 Toribio Medina, had published the first comprehensive work on Chilean archaeology; a certain amount of source material on colonial history was available, such as the works of Ovalle and Rosales, but, in general, bibliographic facilities were woefully inadequate. Latcham therefore decided that he must build up his own library. In the course of time he acquired almost all the outstanding works on anthropology from all parts of the world. He was one of the most widely read scholars the writer has known. His bibliography testifies to the great range of his interests.
Latcham continued to work both as an engineer and anthropologist for many years before he received official recognition. In 1927, however, he was named Professor of Indigenous Art in the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Santiago. In the following year he became Director of the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, a post he held until his death. In 1929 he became Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts in the newly created Universidad de Chile, and in 1935 he was appointed Profesor de Prehistoria Americana. In 1939 the university of San Marcos (Lima) gave him the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa and the Chilean Government decorated him with the Orden de Mbrito. To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of his arrival in Chile, the University of Chile held a tremendous demonstration, in which all scientific societies of the country took part.
The writer first met Latcham in 1920 when he had begun to reorganise the badly run-down Museo Nacional de Historia Natural. Characteristically his
first step was to overhaul the library and to install a reading room. The work proceeded slowly through lack of funds. His post as Director, however, gave him opportunities to excavate and make reconnaissance trips.
In 1930, Latcham and the writer negotiated one of the biggest exchanges of archaeological and ethnological material which has ever taken place. The
list of objects fills eighteen single-spaced typewritten pages. As a result, Chile is today the only country in Latin America which owns a comprehensive North American collection, as well as much material from other countries, including Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador and Peru. On the other hand, the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, has a Chilean collection which is outranked only by that of the Museo Nacional. Such exchanges are difficult to arrange. That both parties felt that they had the best of this deal was largely due to Latcham's integrity and fairness and to the mutual confidence we had in each other.
To discuss the long list of Latcham's publications in detail is not possible. They have stood up well as is proved by the prices they bring and the difficulty one has in finding them, even in Chile. His outstanding work undoubtedly is La Organization Social y las Creencias Religiosas de los Antiguos Araucanos. An English version of this with added material appeared serially in the South Pacific Mail in 1924 and 1925. Mention also should be made of his Prehistoira Chilena, first printed in 1928, reprinted in 1936, and his Alfareria Indigena Chilena. In 1938 he published a detailed study of the Atacama region and, before his death, he had finished a similar study on the Diaguitas. [by K.S. Lothrop, American Anthropologist vol. 47, issue 4]
