National Institute of Anthropology and History

The National Institute of Anthropology and History (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia; INAH) is a public institution entrusted with rescuing, exploring, safeguarding, restoring, conserving, researching, and disseminating Mexico's tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Through a presidential decree, Lázaro Cárdenas (1934–1940) founded the Institute on December 31, 1938, under the ministry of public education. It was a product of the Mexican nationalism that had developed through the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and stemmed from the union of two nineteenth-century institutions: the Office of Archeological and Colonial Monuments and the National Museum of Archeology, History, and Ethnology.

The Federal Law on Archeological and Historical Monuments and Zones was decreed in 1972 to provide a framework for similar laws in various nations. The National Institute of Anthropology and History has two important educational institutions: the National School of Anthropology and History (with one campus in the Federal District and another in the city of Chihuahua) and the National School of Conservation, Restoration, and Museography. The Institute is represented in each one of Mexico's states through the INAH Centers. In the early twenty-first century it is responsible for some 150 archeological zones that are open to the public, and over one hundred museums throughout Mexican territory. The research done at its different centers, specializing by area and supported by prestigious libraries, provides resources for its schools, museums, and publications.

See alsoAnthropologyxml .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Biblioteca Nacional de Antropología e Historia. Available from http://www.bnah.inah.gob.mx.

Dirección de Estudios Históricos. Available from http://www.estudioshistoricos.inah.gob.mx.

Olivé, Julio César, and Augusto Urteaga, coords. INAH: Una Historia. México: MINAH, 1988.

Olivé, Julio César, and Bolfy Cottom, coords. INAH: Una Historia, 3 vols. México: INAH, 2003.

Sistema Nacional de Fototecas. Available from http://www.sinafo.inah.gob.mx.

                                Lilia Venegas Aguilera