Nomination: Deborah de Magalhães Lima, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Faculty of Philosophy and Human Sciences, UFMG
Period: March 21st to April 3rd, 2011
Maria Manuela Carneiro da Cunha is a Portuguese-Brazilian anthropologist. She is considered one of the most important anthropologists today. Her research had a profound impact on anthropology carried out in Brazil and had a great political impact, helping, for example, to consolidate the articles of the 1998 Constitution that deal with indigenous people’s rights to land.
The researcher has a Bachelor’s degree in pure Mathematics from the Faculté des Sciences, Paris (1967). After graduating, she was a student of Claude Lévi-Strauss. She received her doctorate from the State University of Campinas (1975) where she taught for eleven years and was then a full professor at the University of São Paulo. She was also a full professor at the University of Chicago from 1994 to 2009, where she is currently professor emeritus.