The anthropophagous Oswald de Andrade and the heritage conservation: a devourer of myths?

ABSTRACT An unpublished document of 1930 attributed by the authors of this article to Oswald de Andrade, in which he suggests the “Bases for the Creation and Organization of the Department of Defense and Conservation of the Artistic Heritage of Brazil”, is the starting point used to discuss the historiographical shadow that conceals the writer as one of the agents of the constitution, in the field of ideas, of a preservationist culture in the country, particularly within the history of the constitution of the National Historical and Artistic Patrimony Service (SPHAN). The article also proposes to problematize the centrality of Mário de Andrade in the founding myth of the Service. To do so, it addresses the biography of Oswald de Andrade, his ideas, political positions, his social place, his friendships and enmities. The debate raises the question whether there would be a difficulty in admitting the provocative presence of an “anthropophagous conservative” in the history of the constitution of the main federal preservation body in Brazil.