We analyze in this paper the controversy over the uses of the anthropological collections that existed in both the Museum of Ethnology and Anthropology and the National Museum of Natural History, in Santiago of Chile between 1912 to 1929 We argue that debates between these museums were mainly influenced by three aspects: the quantity of pieces gathered, the storage and the physical preservation of the objects, and their public and official recognition as a scientific agency by the political authorities. By placing the disputes over objects and collections we can see the eclectic nature of the anthropology at the time and for what such debates and disagreements signified to the definition of the anthropology as a science during early decades of twentieth century.

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