An anthropologue at the museum: Edgar Roquette-Pinto and the exercise of anthropology in the first decades of the 20th century

Abstract The present article intends to explore the connections between anthropology and museums from the trajectory of Edgar Roquette-Pinto. Anthropologue trained in medicine, Roquette-Pinto played a decisive role in the National and Paulista museums. In these spaces formed collections, elaborated catalogs and materials of publicity, promoted exhibitions. Expected, through the analysis of its trajectory and performance, the boundaries in the classification of museums as national and ethnographic; as well as to point to the public and political function of museums from their relationship with anthropology.