ABSTRACT
This chapter explores why social anthropology in Uruguay has given limited attention to disasters based on natural hazards. It focuses on internal factors in the development of the discipline and its community of practice, since it was first institutionalized at the Universidad de la Republica in 1976. The chapter provides a brief history of academic anthropology in Uruguay and shows how the nature-society relation was conceived both in social anthropology and archaeology. The development of archeology was significantly affected by the international archaeological rescue mission carried out between 1976 and 1983, prior to the construction of the binational hydroelectric dam of Salto Grande, on the Uruguay River. The theme of national cultural identity was much debated in the context of the ideological reconstruction of the Uruguayan exceptionality as a unitary and homogeneous nation. The occupation of floodplains for residence has become a widespread phenomenon from the 1980s, mainly on the west coast of the country.
