Durkheim in the Pampas: His Reception in Argentina and Uruguay (1894-1947)

The present work aims to study the reception of Emile Durkheim and his disciples´ ideas (Paul Fauconnet, Marcel Mauss, Celestin Bouglé, etc.) in the Sociology chairs of the Schools of Law and Social Sciences, Philosophy and Arts, and Humanities and Education at the following universities: Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Santa Fe and La Plata (Argentina) and Republic (Uruguay). This study identifies three periods of that reception: the first covers the initial appearance of Durkheim´s ideas in the Río de la Plata from 1894 to 1915, when, while sociology in Uruguay was based on Spencerian outlook, the reception of French sociology in Argentina was mainly limited to The Rules of Sociological Method and, subsidiarily, The Division of Labour in Society. The second period comprises the years 1915-1933. This was a time when a first sociology chair was created in Uruguay. The readings were extended to others works (Sociology and Pedagogy and The Elementary Forms of Regilious Life) at the same time that the local sociologists began to study others French sociologists, such as Maurice Halbwachs. Finally, the third period (1933-1947) involves a reinterpretation of Durkheim's doctoral thesis in Argentina creating a pre-functionalist thought in the country. This did not happen in Uruguay where even in the 1950's the sociology lectures would follow a trend linked with complementarian cultural background for future lawyers.