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THE TEAM
CONTACT
Yet although these texts openly and critically reveal dimensions of colonial reality that were usually concealed, they also show that Dias, like his wife, left the Makonde with the memory of a "white man" who was radically different from those they were accustomed to in terms of treatment and empathy (H. West, Inverting the Camel’s Hump..., p. 64). Nevertheless, he did not call into question the legitimacy of Portuguese domination. Even in the reports, which precede the onset of the armed anti-colonial conflict by only a few years, he calls for changes that would foster the continuity of the pluricontinental nation (R. Pereira, Introdução à Reedição de 1958 [Introduction to the 1958 Reissue], XXVIII-LII).
Jorge Dias’ impact on the university sphere between the 1950s and 1970s allowed him to open up some space for the development of teaching and studies in Ethnology, as evidenced by the works he directed, as well as those of the team he formed. But his influence was also felt beyond the boundaries of Anthropology. He had a close connection with Portugal's leading geographer of the time, Orlando Ribeiro (Ribeiro, "Nota Preliminar" ["Preliminary Note"]), and his work and that of his team was taken into account by José Mattoso, in his book Identificação de um País [Identification of a Country] (1985), which also highlighted Dias’ considerations on national character, as did the sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos, for example (J. Leal, Etnografias Portuguesas..., [Portuguese Ethnographies...] pp. 94-104). He directed the Centre for Ethnology Studies—formerly the Centre for Peninsular Ethnology Studies—dedicated to Portugal, and the Centre for Cultural Anthropology Studies, dedicated to research abroad. He is credited with creating the Museum of Ethnology, founded in 1965 as the Overseas Museum of Ethnology, equipped with a purpose-built building in 1976. It housed a n extremely rich collection, consisting of materials from Portugal, many of which were linked to his team’s research, collections from the colonies, and other origins, as he refused from the outset to limit it to the "Overseas"—the project, with a universalist character, was to make it a " veritable Museum of Man", according to his closest collaborator and friend (E. V. de Oliveira, "António Jorge Dias", 1974, p. 13).
