Abstract
This essay deals with Occupational Science from the hegemonic and (re) known history of Occupational Therapy in the world, and we ask ourselves “Why an Occupational Science in Latin America?”. For this, we present a critical perspective on Occupational Science, retrieving evidence about its institutionalization, discourses, and repercussions on the validation and identity of Occupational Therapy. With that, we verified similarities and distinctions between both disciplines, considering, above all, that the studies of and about human occupation always existed even before their creation. This allows us to affirm that there is no dependency relationship between Occupational Therapy and Occupational Science, as in the initial discourses of its creation. However, we must consider that both are complementary and not dependent and that together or separately they are directed towards social transformations. It seems to us that in the context of Latin America this understanding is not a reality, since the engendering of issues that still maintain the status of 'identity crisis' in Occupational Therapy makes it difficult to understand other mechanisms of reading about the stories and foundations of the area, such as the processes of colonization and confrontation and recognition of our epistemic bases.
Keywords:
History; Knowledge; Professional Practice; Occupational Therapy