Abstract
In nineteenth-century Spain, Anthropology arose as a means to study the social and cultural aspects of humankind in an empirical manner. However, the anthropological evaluation of distinct internal national cultures opened a dangerous path for politically motivated ideologies to establish a cultural hierarchy in which particular communities were considered less-developed. The urban liberals justified the intervention by the centralized government in the rural peripheral cultures in order to usurp control over these perceived underdeveloped areas. In both Benito Pérez Galdós’ Doña Perfecta and José María de Pereda’s De Tal Palo, Tal Astilla, the effects of Anthropology on the urban–rural dynamics are played out as the liberal, urban protagonists engage the rural communities in a manner that simulates a colonial encounter; the dominant culture dismisses the extant beliefs and customs, thus allowing for political and economic usurpation of the perceived underdeveloped community. In each novel, the rural inhabitants react violently to the liberal protagonists’ encroachment indicating a growing awareness of the failure of the liberal faction’s nationalization agenda.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Afinoguénova, E. (2003). Beach, modernity, and colonial encounters in Santander and Castro Urdiales in Amós de Escalante and José María de Pereda, 1864–1877. Mester, XXXII, 127–154.
Dendle, B. J., (1992–93). Orbajosa revisited, or, the complexities of interpretation. Anales Galdosianos, pp. 51–67.
Goode, J. (2009). Impurity of blood: Defining race in Spain, 1870–1930. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
Hechter, M. (1999). Internal colonialism: The Celtic fringe in British national development (2nd ed.). New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
Labanyi, J. (2000). Gender and modernization in the Spanish realist novel. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lisón Tolosana, C. (1971). Antropología social en España. Madrid: Siglo Veintiuno de Españo Editores.
Miller, S. (1988). Madrid y la problemática regionalista en Pereda y Galdós. Boletín de la Biblioteca de Menéndez Pelayo, LXIV, 223–251.
Moses, D. A. (2008). Empire, colony, genocide: Conquest, occupation, and subaltern resistance in world history (pp. 3–54). New York: Bergham Books.
Pereda, J. M. (1880). De tal palo, tal astilla. In J. Casalduero (Ed. 1981), Madrid: Cátedra.
Pérez Galdós, B. (1876). Doña Perfecta. R. Cardona (Ed. 2003). Madrid: Cátedra.
Spencer, H. (1876). Psicología comparada del hombre. La Revista Contemporánea, 30 January, 504–518. Resource document. Biblioteca Nacional Española. Hemerotecadigital. http://hemerotecadigital.bne.es. Accessed 2 Septempber 2009.
Taras, R., & Ganguly, R. (2002). Understanding ethnic conflict: The international dimension. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers.
Zahareas, A. (1976). Galdós’ Doña Perfecta: Ffiction, history and ideology. Anales Galdosianos, 11, 29–58.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sierra, S. The Anthropological Effect: Cultural Hierarchies and Nationalization in Pérez Galdós’ Doña Perfecta and Pereda’s De Tal Palo, Tal Astilla . Neophilologus 95, 565–577 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-010-9234-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-010-9234-0