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U.Porto Memory

University of Porto Famous Alumni

Joaquim Santos Júnior

Joaquim Santos Júnior 1901-1990 Doctor, anthropologist, ornithologist and university teacher

Joaquim Rodrigues dos Santos Júnior was born in Barcelos in 1901.
He studied in Porto, where he attended and completed high school (from 1911-1912 to 1917-1918), and enrolled in Agronomy at the Agronomy Institute of Lisbon, University of Lisbon, in the academic year 1918-1919. However, for health reasons he only attended the 1st semester. In the following year, he transferred to the Historical Natural Sciences course at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto, which he completed in 1923 with a final grade of Good (15 marks on a scale of 0 to 20).
During and after the course, he took Greek (1922-1923), and Ethnology, Aesthetics and History of Art at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto between 1923 and 1924.
In 1926 he specialized in Colloidal Chemistry at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, taught by Professor Kopaczewski, and afterwards studied Medicine and Surgery at the same faculty. He graduated with the final grade of Good (16 marks on a scale of 0 to 20).
He did his PhD in 1944 on Historical Natural Sciences at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, and submitted the dissertation entitled "A contribution to the study of anthropology of Mozambique: Nhúngüés and Antumbas".

Santos Júnior began teaching at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, and in 1923 he was appointed supernumerary Assistant of Anthropology. At the end of the 1920s, he was hired as 2nd Assistant of the 7th group (Zoology and Anthropology). In the 1930s and 1940s he was Chair of Zoology. He also taught subjects of the Natural Sciences Group in the Alexandre Herculano and Rodrigues de Freitas central high schools between 1924 and 1926.
In the academic year 1935-1936, Santos Júnior was Assistant Professor of Palaeontology and in the following year he was Chair in Anthropology standing in for Mendes Correia. In the years thereafter, he taught Animal Ecology and Zoogeography, Chair in Compared Anatomy and Physiology and General Zoology, and was in charge of the Animal Ecology course and Medical Zoology. In the academic year 1952-1953, he taught Compared Anatomy and Physiology and Anthropology. In 1953, he competed successfully for the position of Full Professor of the Zoology and Anthropology group of FCUP. From 1965 on, he was Chair in the Sociology course.

The career of Santos Júnior was not limited to teaching. He also practiced as a doctor in Ward 4 of Santo António General Hospital between 1932 and 1936. In the 1930s and 1940s he became a Fellow of the Board of National Education and the Institute for Advanced Culture. Later, he became visiting professor of the University of Luanda in 1968, where he taught Zoology until June 1971, the year of his retirement. He continued his research on Angolan Anthropology until July the following year.

Joaquim Santos Júnior also held several prestigious positions as the preparer-curator of the Museum of Anthropology and Pre-history Mendes Corrêa of FCUP (1926-1937), co-director of the Marine Zoology Station of Foz do Douro (in the summer of 1952) and head of the Anthropological Mission of Mozambique, conducting six campaigns between 1936 and 1956.

He published a number of works in the field of Anthropology. Ethnography, Pre-history and Zoology and participated in conferences and congresses in Portugal, France, Spain, Belgium and Mozambique.
In the field of ornithology, Santos Júnior was one of the pioneers of scientific bird ringing in Portugal and was responsible for creating the Ornithology Reserve of Mindelo, of the Directorate General of Forestry and Aquaculture Services.
Santos Júnior was part of several Portuguese and international scientific associations, a member of the Portuguese Society of Anthropology and Ethnology, of Porto, of the Portuguese Anatomic Society, the Association of Portuguese Archaeologists ((corresponding member), of Sociedade Martins Sarmento, in Guimarães (corresponding member), of the Portuguese Institute of Archaeology, History and Ethnography, in Lisbon (corresponding member), of the Broterian Society and the Portuguese Society of Eugenic Studies, in Coimbra, of the Seminar of Galician Studies, in Santiago de Compostela, of the Geography Society of Lisbon (sitting member) and of the Portuguese group of History of Sciences.

At international level, he was part of the Institut International d'Anthropologie, the Société d'Ethnographie de Paris (membre titulaire), of the Bureau Bibliographique de Torino (honorary member), of the Royal Galician Academy, in la Coruña (corresponding member), of the Brazilian Society of Folklore, in Natal, of the International Folklore Club of Brazil (sitting member), of the International African Institute, of London, and of the Royal Academy of History, of Madrid (corresponding academic). Moreover, he was also "Honorary Fellow" of The Epigraphic Society, of San Diego, in E.U.A.

He lived about half a century in Quinta da Caverneira, Maia, in a 19th century “Brazilian house”. He spent his holidays in Quinta Judite, Torre de Moncorvo, owned by his wife, and often went to the thermal spa in Carvalhelhos, Boticas, run by his friend Augusto Gonçalves Moreno. He died in his house in Águas Santas, in 1990.

After his death, his family donated the his archive, books and some personal items to the Municipal Library of Torre de Moncorvo, becoming part of the Memory Centre of this town, and his house was converted into a cultural facility of the Maia municipality, which aimed to set up a Study Centre on Rural Affairs.
(Universidade Digital / Gestão de Informação, 2011)