El Pasado Prehistórico del Gran Perú.

El Pasado Prehistórico del Gran Perú. (Alto y Bajo Perú). Con 31 láminas. Editorial: Instituto Tihuanacu de Antropología, Etnografía y Prehistoria. La Paz-Bolivia. Imprenta “El Trabajo”. 1940.

Quarto, (25.8 cm x 17 cm / 10.15 x 6.7 in), Title page, VI pp., 1 sheet, 54 pp., plus 31 figures. Bound with leather spine and gilt titles, keeping its original covers. Good copy, with foxing especially in the margins of its pages, which belonged to the library of Ángel María de Zuloaga, with its ex libris. First edition.

These works have the charm of representing the evolution of scientific knowledge from its most elementary advances. At that time, Posnansky argued that the origin of man was in America: "it does not come from other regions of the world, but is indigenous to this region." From then on, his arguments advance through the most diverse theoretical routes, from the rejection of the European scholars who have baptized America as the "New World", considering that it was only populated in the Neolithic. Reading him, with current knowledge, is wonderful.

Of Austrian origin, Posnansky settled in Bolivia where he lived for more than forty years, a good part of them dedicated to the study of the remains of the Tihuanaco culture. His name is linked to the origin of the Bolivian navy (he was a ship's captain in the so-called Acre Campaign, a hidden war between Brazil and Bolivia over the lands of La Gomera) and despite his amateur training in the field of archaeology, he managed to install his theories about Tihuanaco —he came to describe it as the starting point of the high American cultures— on numerous controversial issues.

Romantic, adventurous, controversial and millionaire, Posnansky was appointed Secretary of the XVII Congress of Americanists, while he fulfilled the same function in the Geographical Society of La Paz. His theories confronted the most qualified scientists; among them, he debated with the archaeologists Max Uhle, José Imbelloni and the geographer Lorenzo Sundt.

S.O. XV-IM