Antonio de la Calancha (1584–1654) was a pioneering anthropologist studying the South American natives and a senior Augustinian friar.

His father, Francisco de la Calancha, had the rank of Captain and received the commission of Ambana in Larecaja, whose succession, which corresponded to him, Antonio resigned.

He moved to study in Lima, where he received Doctor degree of Theology at the University of San Marcos and became one of the most famous preachers of his time.

His disciple, Father Bernardo de Torres, reviewed the second part that Calancha left unfinished, completed it and published it in 1655 under the title of Chronicle of the Shrines of Our Lady of Copacabana and Prado.

Calancha posited the similarity of Indians and Mongoloid (Tatars), but the migration of Asians he deduced through the lens of biblical information, such extravagant and naive as well as Montesinos.