Joaquín Costa como etnógrafo. Una visión panorámica

Abstract

This study tries to analyze Joaquín Costa's work from an anthropological point of view. Costa was a reputed lawyer in the «regenerative» policy being conducted in his days and was also the compiler of a large first-hand collection on the uses and habits of contemporary Spain by means of which he secured, through personal contacts, questionnaires and public debates, a firm engagement on the part of his contemporaries in the fulfillment of that task. Costa was also the promoter of a theoretical interpretation based on «functionalistic» principies, and set up an institutional programme of ethnographical studies in Spain, to which important writers such as Unamuno, Altamira, Hoyos Sáinz and Carreras Artau 1ent their collaboration.