Fall 2010

Dr. Roberto DaMatta has a B.A degree in History from the Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF); a specialization course in Social Anthropology from the National Museum (UFRJ); and a M.A. and Ph.D. degree from the Peabody Museum of Harvard University. He was Head of Anthropology Department and Coordinator the Graduate Program in Social Anthropology at the National Museum (UFRJ). He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame, where he held the Chair Rev. Edmund Joyce of Anthropology from 1987 to 2004. He is currently Full Professor at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio). He conducted ethnological research among the Apinayé and Gaviões Indigenous groups in Brazil. He was a pioneer in studies of ritual and festivals in industrial societies, having investigated Brazil as a society and as a cultural system through the analysis of carnival, football, music, food, citizenship, women, death, and the numbers game categories of time and space. Dr.Roberto da Matta gave a series of lectures and workshops during his residence here at UIUC in 2010.