ROGER BARTRA (Mexico City, 1942) has a PhD from the Sorbonne in Paris and is currently an Emeritus Researcher at the UNAM. He has been a visiting professor at the University of California San Diego, Johns Hopkins, Pompeu Fabra, Rutgers, Stanford, and Wisconsin, as well as at the J. Paul Getty Center in Los Angeles, among other places. He has published books about European mythologies such as El salvaje en el espejo, El salvaje artificial, and Las redes imaginarias del poder político; about the national identity crisis, such as La jaula de la melancolía and La sangre y la tinta; about the myth of melancholy in the Western world, such Cultura y melancolíaand El duelo de los ángeles; and about the links between cultural heritage and neural networks, such as Antropología del cerebro.