ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the remarkable synergy between the emergence of a new intellectual wave in the Americas after the 1920s favorable to ethnic miscegenation as central features of national identities. It examines the paralleled production of founding anthropologist Franz Boas on defining culture in new terms that better captured the dynamics of change he believed were fundamental to the societies of the New World. It assesses the influence of Boasian views redefining culture and race on new bases closer to the pluralistic experience of Latin American societies, through an examination of the work of Manuel Gamio, Gilberto Freyre, and Fernando Ortiz. The work and influence of Franz Boas on reconceptualizing culture in non-racially essentializing terms allowing to capture diversity, connectedness, and change, as well as that of Latin American intellectuals who have in a rather proximate spirit argued for comparable issues of 'fusion' and 'hybridity' from the standpoint of Mexican, Brazilian, or Cuban experiences.
