Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T05:35:52.303Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Returning to the Source: Social Archaeology as Latin American Philosophy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

O. Hugo Benavides
O. Hugo Benavides*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Anthropolog, Fordham University, 441 East Fordham Road, Bronx, NY 10458-9993
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The following article proposes reconsidering the social archaeology paradigm as a worthwhile school of thought within Latin American philosophy. Rather than critiquing social archaeology for its supposed methodological limitations, I argue that this Latin American approach has already had an enormous contribution to the anthropological and political thought of the region. Instead of assuming that archaeology is a neutral enterprise, social archaeologists and others influenced by their ideas have already carried out important interdisciplinary and socially relevant research in the historical understanding of the past. Archaeological sites such as those of Cochasquí and Agua Blanca (among others) in Ecuador have benefitted significantly from a more refined political analysis of their histories than those routinely carried out in the positivistic paradigm of the United States. Finally, social archaeology also points to a much needed and useful link between the committed assessment of the continent"s past with the varied and important political transformation essential for the future well being of Latin America’s people.

Resumen

Resumen

El siguiente artículo propone una seria discusión sobre la imporatancia y relevancia de la propuesta de la arqueología como ciencia social. De esta manera, esta particular escuela Latino Americana no tiene nada que envidiar a las corrientes positivistas del norte. Al contrario, la arqueología como ciencia social ha desarrollado un amplio esquema de trabajo que va mucho más alla de lo meramente arqueológico, o de lo que se podría definir como antropológico dentro de un plano académico. Esta contribución, una de las características más positivas de la corriente, es su clara incorporación del quehacer político como una realidad esencial del estudio y análisis histórico de nuestras propias naciones. Las investigaciones arqueológicas y antropológicas realizadas en sitios como Cochasquí, Agua Blanca, y Real Alto en Ecuador proponen una manera diferente de entender el pasado y de la contribución de este a nuestra realidad contemporánea. En vez de simplemente recuperar el pasado, estas investigaciones buscan entender cual es el significado de este pasado y como este pasado en sí mismo toma un lugar tan hegemónico y esencial en el desarrollo nacional de nuestros estados. De esta manera es también importante destacar que las limitaciones tecnicas o (mal entendidas) metodológicas no deberían ser vistas como un problema sino como una clara priorización de preguntas de fondo sobre el destino histórico del continente más que de un simple interes de quedarnos en discusiones cronológicas, tipológicas o meramente descriptivas. Por eso discute que es más que factible el proponer el largo alcance de la arquelogía como ciencia social como un desarrollo paradigmático en colaboracion con la tradicional antropología coprometida y filosofía anti-imperialista del continente. Las contribuciones de la arqueología como ciencia social (como bien lo intuían sus iniciales progenitores) ha escapado el ámbito arqueológico y está claramente enmarcaada con la lucha por profundos y necesarios cambios sociales en nuestras sociedad neo-coloniales: luchas en las que la historia es de una importancia fundamental.

Type
Forum
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 12 , Issue 4 , December 2001 , pp. 355 - 370
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Indígena, América 1980 Editorial: la antropología en América Latinay el Caribe. América Indígena 40:199–205.Google Scholar
Amin, Samir 1989 Eurocentrism. Monthly Review Press, New York.Google Scholar
Anzaldúa, Gloria 1987 Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestizo. Aunt Lute Books, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Arguedas, Jose María 1989a La culture: un patrimonio dificil de colonizar. In Formatión de una cultura national indoamericana, edited by Angel Rama, pp. 183–188. Siglo XXI, Mexico.Google Scholar
Arguedas, Jose María 1989b Razón de ser del indigenismo en Perú. In Formatión de una cultura indoamericana, edited by Angel Rama, pp. 189–197. Siglo XXI, Mexico.Google Scholar
Asad, Talal 1982 A Comment on the Idea of Non-Western Anthropology. In Indigenous Anthropology in Non- Western Countries, edited by Hussein Fahim, pp. 284–287. North Carolina Academic Press, Durham.Google Scholar
Barre, Marie-Chantal 1983 Ideologías indigenistas y movimientos indios. Siglo XXI, Mexico.Google Scholar
Bate, Luis F. 1977 Arqueología y materialismo histórico. Editorial Nueva Imágen, Mexico.Google Scholar
Bate, Luis F. 1978 Sociedad, formation económico-social y cultura. Editorial De Cultura Popular, Mexico.Google Scholar
Bate, Luis F. 1981 Relatión general entre teoría y método en Arqueología. Boletín de Antropología Americana 4:3–54.Google Scholar
Bate, Luis F. 1982 Hacia la cuantificación de las fuerzas productivas. Boletín de Antropología Americana 6:17–24.Google Scholar
Bate, Luis F. 1986 Cultura, clases y cuestión etnico-nacional. Juan Pablos Editora, Mexico.Google Scholar
Bate, Luis F. 1992 Las sociedades cazadoras-recolectoras pre-tribales o el ‘Paleolitico Superior’ visto desde Suramérica. Boletín de Antropología Americana 25:105–155.Google Scholar
Bate, Luis F. 1993 Teoría de la cultura y arqueología. Boletín de Antropología Americana 27:75–93.Google Scholar
Benavides, O. Hugo 1999 Telling Stories, Producing the Nation: Archaeology’s Role in the Construction of Contemporary Ecuador. Ph.D. Dissertation, City University of New York, University Micro-films, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Bonfil, Guillermo 1970 Del indigenismo de la revolutión a la antropología crítica. In De eso que llaman antropología Mexicana, pp. 39–65. Editorial Nuestro Tiempo, Mexico.Google Scholar
Burgos-Dabray, Elisabeth (editor) 1985 Me llamo Rigoberta Menchú y así me nació la conciencia. Siglo XXI, Mexico.Google Scholar
Castañeda, Quetzil 1996 In the Museum of Maya Culture: Touring Chichen Itza. The University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Colson, Elizabeth 1982 Anthropological Dilemmas in the Late Twentieth Century. In Indigenous Anthropology in Non-Western Countries. edited by H. Fahim, pp. 253–262. Academic Press, Durham.Google Scholar
CONAIE (Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador) 1997 Proyecto político de la CONAIE. CONAIE, Ecuador.Google Scholar
CONAIE (Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador) 1998 Las nacionalidades indígenas y el estado plurinacional. CONAIE, Ecuador.Google Scholar
Cypess, Sandra Messinger 1991 La Malinche in Mexican Literature: From History to Myth. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
de Teotihuacán, Declaratión 1983 Declaratión de Teotihuacán. ESPOL, Ecuador.Google Scholar
de la Segunda Reunión de Barbados, Documentos 1979 Indianidad y descolonización en América Latina. Editorial Nueva Imágen, Mexico.Google Scholar
Dorfman, Ariel 1998 Heading South, Looking North. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York.Google Scholar
Ensor, Bradley E. 2000 Social Formations, Modo de Vida, and Conflict in Archaeology. American Antiquity 65:15–42.Google Scholar
Fals Borda, Orlando 1985 Conocimiento y poder popular. Siglo XXI, Mexico.Google Scholar
Fannon, Frantz 1963 The Wretched of the Earth. Grove Press, New York.Google Scholar
Fannon, Frantz 1965 A Dying Colonialism. Grove Press, New York.Google Scholar
Fannon, Frantz 1967 Black Skin, White Mask. Grove Press, New York.Google Scholar
Flores, Juan 1997 La venganza de cortijo y otros ensayos. Editorial Huracán, Puerto Rico.Google Scholar
Florescano, Enrique 1994 Memory, Myth, and Time in Mexico: From the Aztecs to Independence. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel 1980 Power and Knowledge. Pantheon Books, New York.Google Scholar
Freire, Paulo 1992 Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Continuum Publishers, New York.Google Scholar
Friedemann, Nina 1984 Etica y política del antropólogo: compromiso profesional. In Antropología en Colombia, edited by Nina Friedeman, pp. 383–428. Bogota.Google Scholar
Gaceta Arqueológica Andina 1987/88 Editorial. Gaceta Arqueológica Andina 4(16):2. Institute Andino de Estudios Arqueológicos, Lima.Google Scholar
Gaceta Arqueológica Andina 1990 Editorial. Gaceta Arqueológica Andina 5(17):2. Institute Andino de Estudios Arqueológicos, Lima.Google Scholar
Gándara, Manuel 1992 La arqueología oficial Mexicana: causas y efectos. Institute Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México.Google Scholar
Gándara, Manuel 1993 El análisis de posiciones teóricas: aplicaciones a la arqueología social. Boletín de Antropología Americana 27:5–20.Google Scholar
Gándara, Manuel, López, Fernando, and Rodriguez, Ignacio 1985 Arqueología y marxismo en México. Boletín de Antropología Americana 11:5–17.Google Scholar
García Canclini, Nestor 1982 Las culturas populares en el capitalismo. Siglo XXI, Mexico.Google Scholar
García Canclini, Nestor 1992 Culturas híbridas: estrategias para entrary salir de la modernidad. Editorial Suramericana, Buenos Aires.Google Scholar
García Canclini, Nestor 1993 Transforming Modernity: Popular Culture in Mexico. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
García Canclini, Nestor 1995 Cultura y pospolítica: el debate sobre la modernidad en Amírica Latina. Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, Mexico.Google Scholar
García Marquez, Gabriel 1971 One Hundred Years of Solitude. Avon Books, New York.Google Scholar
Gordon, Edmund T. 1991 Anthropology and Liberation. In Decolonizing Anthropology: Moving Further Toward an Anthropology of Liberation, edited by Faye Harrison, pp. 149–167. American Anthropological Association, Washingtion D.C. Google Scholar
Guevara, Ernesto “Che” 1966 Condiciones para el desarrollo económico latinoamericano. Montevideo.Google Scholar
Handler, Richard, and Gable, Eric 1997 The New History in an Old Museum. Duke University Press, Durham.Google Scholar
Hale, Charles 1996 Introduction. Journal of Latin American Anthropology 2:2–3.Google Scholar
Haraway, Donna 1986 Primatology Is Politics by Other Means: Women’s Place Is in the Jungle. In Feminist Approaches to Science, edited by Ruth Bleier, pp. 77–118. Pergamon Press, London.Google Scholar
Harrison, Faye 1991 Anthropology as an Agent of Transformation: Introductory Comments and Queries. In Decolonizing Anthropology: Moving Further Toward an Anthropology of Liberation, edited by F. Harrison, pp. 88–109. American Anthropological Association, Washington D.C. Google Scholar
Joseph, Gilbert, and Nugent, Daniel (editors) 1994 Everyday Forms of State Formation: Revolution and the Negotiation of Rule in Modern Mexico. Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina.Google Scholar
Kincaid, Jamaica 1997 My Brother. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York.Google Scholar
Klejn, Leo S. 1977 A Panorama of Theoretical Archaeology. Current Anthropology 18:1–42.Google Scholar
Klejn, Leo S. 1980 On the Building of Theoretical Archaeology. Current Anthropology 21:521–525.Google Scholar
Kohl, Phillip, and Fawcett, Clare (editors) 1995 Nationalism, Politics, and the Practice of Archaeology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Leone, Mark 1988 The Georgian Order as the Order of Merchant Capitalism in Annapolis, Maryland. In The Recovery of Meaning: Historical Archaeology in the Eastern United States, edited by Mark Leone and Barbara Potter, pp. 263–292. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. Google Scholar
Lomnitz Adler, Claudio 1995 El problema de escala en la antropología cultural. In La heterodoxia recuperada: en torno a Angel Palerm, edited by Sidney Mintz, pp. 597–616. Siglo XXI, Mexico.Google Scholar
López, Fernando 1984 Superficies y volumenes: aspectos de la constructión teórica en arqueología. Boletín de Antropología Americana 10:1–32.Google Scholar
Lumbreras, Luis 1981 La arqueología como ciencia social. Ediciones Histar, Lima.Google Scholar
Lumbreras, Luis 1982 La arqueología científica social: 3 principios, 3 criterios y 3 factores. Gaceta Arqueológica Andina 1(4–5):3,10. Institute Andino de Estudios Arqueológicos, Lima.Google Scholar
Lumbreras, Luis 1990 Cronología arqueológica de Cochasquí. Honorable Consejo Provincial de Pichincha, Quito.Google Scholar
Mallon, Florencia 1996 Constructing Mestizaje in Latin America: Authenticity, Marginality, and Gender in the Claiming of Ethnic Identities. Journal of Latin American Anthropology 2(1):170–181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marcos, Jorge 1986 La investigatión y enseñanza de la arqueología en el Ecuador. In Guía histórica informativa, pp. 41–48. Centro de Estudios Arqueológicos y Antropológicos (ESPOL), E.Q. Editorial, Guayaquil.Google Scholar
Mariátegui, José Carlos 1955 Siete ensayos de interpretación de la realidad peruana. Editorial Universitaria, Santiago.Google Scholar
Martí, José 1977[1891] Nuestra América. Biblioteca Ayacucho, Venezuela.Google Scholar
McEwan, Colin, Hudson, Charles, and Silva, María Isabel 1994 Archaeology and Community: A Village Cultural Center and Museum in Ecuador. Practicing Anthropology 16:3–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGuire, Randall 1992 A Marxist Archaeology. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
McGuire, Randall 1997 Crossing the Border. In Prehistory of the Borderlands: Recent Research in the Archaeology of Northern Mexico and the Southern Southwest, edited by John Carpenter and Guadalupe Sanchez, pp. 130–137. Arizona State Museum Archaeological Series 186, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
McGuire, Randall, and Navarrete, Rodrigo 1999 Entre motocicletas y fusiles: las arqueologías radicales anglosajona y latinoamericana. Boletín de Antropología Americana 34:89–110.Google Scholar
Montané, Julio 1980 Marxismo y arqueología. Ediciones de Cultura Popular, Mexico.Google Scholar
Morraga, Cherrie 1986 From a Long Line of Vendidas: Chicanas and Feminism. In Feminist Studies/Critical Studies, edited by Teresa de Laurentis, pp. 173–190. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.Google Scholar
Morraga, Cherrie 1994 Art in América con acento. In Negotiating Performance: Gender, Sexuality and Theatricality in Latin/o America, edited by Diana Taylor and Juan Villegas, pp. 30–36. Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina.Google Scholar
Nash, June 1975 Nationalism and Fieldwork. Annual Review of Anthropology 225–245.Google Scholar
Navarrete, Rodrigo 1999 Latin American Social Archaeology: One Goal, Multiple Views. Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Department of Anthropology, State University of New York at Binghamton.Google Scholar
Newell, Gillian 1999 American and Mexican Archaeology: Differences in Meaning and Tradition. Bulletin of the Society for American Archaeology 17(5):29–31.Google Scholar
Olivera de Vasquez, Mercedes 1970 Algunos Problemas de la Investigatión Antropológica Actual. In De eso que llaman antropología Mexicana, pp. 94–118. Editorial Nuestro Tiempo, Mexico.Google Scholar
Oyuela-Caycedo, Augusto 1994 History of Latin American Archaeology. Aldershot, Avebury, England.Google Scholar
Oyuela-Cayceo, Augusto, Anaya, Armando, Elera, Carlos G., and Valdez, Lidio M. 1997 Social Archaeology in Latin America?: Comments to T. C. Patterson. American Antiquity 62:365–374.Google Scholar
Paredes, Domingo, and Estrella, Eduardo 1989 Cochasquí: aspectos socio-económicos y nutritivos. Programa Cochasquí, Honorable Consejo Provincial de Pichincha, Quito.Google Scholar
Patterson, Thomas C. 1994 Social Archaeology in Latin America: An Appreciation. American Antiquity 59:531–37.Google Scholar
Patterson, Thomas C. 1995 Toward a Social History of Archaeological Thought. Harcourt Brace College Publishers, New York.Google Scholar
Patterson, Thomas C., and Schmidt, Peter 1995 Introduction: From Constructing to Making Alternative Histories. In Making Alternative Histories: The Practice of Archaeology and History in Non-Western Settings, edited by Thomas C. Patterson and Peter Schmidt, pp. 1–24. School of American Research, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Politis, Gustavo 1995 The Socio-Politics of the Development of Archaeology in Hispanic South America. In Theory in Archaeology: A World Perspective, edited by Peter Ucko, pp. 197–235. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Poole, Deborah 1997 Vision, Race, and Modernity: A Visual Economy of the Andean Image World. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Programa Cochasquí 1991 Replanteamiento programático. Honorable Consejo Provincial de Pichincha, Quito.Google Scholar
Quintero, Rafael 1997 Identidad nacional y estado nacional. In Identidad nacional y globalización, pp. 139–164. ILDIS, FLACSO, and Instituto de Altos Estudios Nacionales, Quito.Google Scholar
Quintero, Rafael, and Silva, Erika 1991 Ecuador: una nación en ciernes, Volúmenes 1, 2, y 3. FLACSO and Abya-Yala, Quito.Google Scholar
Ramos, Alcida 1990 Ethnology Brazilian Style. Cultural Anthropology 5:452–472.Google Scholar
Ramos, Alcida 2000 Anthropologist as Political Actor. Journal of Latin American Anthropology, 4/5:172–189.Google Scholar
Ribeiro, Darcy 1971 El dilema de América Latina: estrategias de poder y fuerzas insurgentes. Siglo XXI, Mexico.Google Scholar
Rodó, José Enrique 1922[1900] Ariel. Houghton and Mifflin, Boston.Google Scholar
Rowe, William, and Schelling, Vivian 1991 Memory and Modernity: Popular Culture in Latin America. Verso, London.Google Scholar
Sanoja, Mario, and Vargas, Iraida 1978 Antiguas formaciones y modos de producción Venezolanos. Monte Avila, Caracas.Google Scholar
Silberman, Neil 1995 Promised Lands and Chosen People: The Politics and Poetics of Archaeological Narrative. In Nationalism, Politics, and the Practice of Archaeology, edited by Philip Kohl and Clare Fawcett, pp. 249–262. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Silva, Erika 1995 Los mitos de la ecuatorianidad: ensayo sobre la identidad nacional. Abya-Yala, Quito.Google Scholar
Smith, Carol 1996 Myths, Intellectuals, and Race/Class/Gender Distinctions in the Formation of Latin American Nations. Journal of Latin American Anthropology 2(1):148–169.Google Scholar
Sorbo, Gunnar 1982 Anthropology at Home and Abroad: A Discussion of Epistemological and Ethical Issues. In Indigenous Anthropology in Non-Western Countries, edited by Hussein Fahim, pp. 152–163. North Carolina Academic Press, Durham.Google Scholar
Starn, Orin 1994 Rethinking the Politics of Anthropology: The Case of the Andes. Current Anthropology 35:13–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stutzman, Ronald 1981 El Mestizaje: An All-inclusive Ideology of Exclusion. In Cultural Transformations and Ethnicity in Modern Ecuador, edited by Norman Whitten, pp. 45–93. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.Google Scholar
Sullivan, Paul 1991 Unfinished Conversations: Mayas and Foreigners Between Two Wars. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Trigger, Bruce 1989 Hyperrelativism, Responsibility and the Social Sciences. Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 26(5):776–97.Google Scholar
Trigger, Bruce 1995 Romaticism, Nationalism, and Archaeology. In Nationalism, Politics, and the Practice of Archaeology, edited by Philip Kohl and Clare Fawcett, pp. 263–279. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Valencia, Enrique 1970 La formatión de nuevos antropólogos. In De eso que llaman antropología mexicana, pp. 119–153. Editorial Nuestro Tiempo, Mexico.Google Scholar
Vargas, Iraida 1990 Arqueología, ciencia y sociedad. Editorial Abre Brecha, Caracas.Google Scholar
Vargas, Iraida 1995 The Perception of History and Archaeology in Latin America. In Making Alternative Histories: The Practices of Archaeology and History in Non-Western Societies, edited by Thomas C. Patterson and Peter Schmidt, pp. 47–68. School of American Research, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Vargas, Iraida, y Sanoja, Mario 1993 Historia, identidad, y poder. Fondo Editorial Trópykos, Caracas.Google Scholar
Vasconcelos, Josí 1997 The Cosmic Race. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.Google Scholar
Veloz-Maggiolo, Manuel 1984 La arqueologóa de la vida cotidiana: matices, historia y diferencias. Boletón de Antropologóa Americana 10:5–21.Google Scholar
Viezzer, Moema (editor) 1977 “Si me permiten hablar”: testimonio de domitila, una mujer de las minas de Bolivia. Siglo XXI, Mexico.Google Scholar
Villalba, O. Marcelo 1988 Cotocollao: una aldea formativa del valle de Quito. Museo del Banco Central del Ecuador, Quito.Google Scholar
Wallerstein, Immanuel 1974 The Modern World System: Agriculture and the Origin of the European World Economy in the Sixteenth Century. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Weiss, Rachel 1991 Being América: Essays on Art, Literature and Identity From Latin America. White Pine Press, New York.Google Scholar
Wolf, Eric 1969 Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century. Harper and Row, New York.Google Scholar
Wylie, Alison 1989 Matters of Fact and Matters of Interest. In Archaeological Approaches to Cultural Identity, edited by Stephen Shennan, pp. 94–109. Unwin Hyman, London.Google Scholar
Wylie, Alison 1992 The Interplay of Evidential Constraints and Political Interests: Recent Archaeological Research on Gender. American Antiquity 57:15–35.Google Scholar
Wylie, Alison 1995 Alternative Histories: Epistemic Disunity and Poltical Integrity. In Making Alternative Histories: The Practice of Archaeology and History in Non-Western Settings, edited by Thomas C. Patterson and Peter Schmidt, pp. 255–272. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Yudice, George, Flores, Juan, and Franco, Jean (editors) 1992 On Edge: The Crisis of Contemporary Latin American Culture. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Zea, Leopoldo 1970 América en la historia. Editorial Castilla, Madrid.Google Scholar
Zea, Leopoldo 1971 Precursores del pensamiento latinoamericano contemporáneo. Secretaría de Educatión Pública, Mexico.Google Scholar
Zea, Leopoldo 1974 Dependencia y liberación en la cultura latinoamericana. Editorial Joaquín Mortiz, Mexico.Google Scholar
Zea, Leopoldo 1978 Filosofia de la historia americana. Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico.Google Scholar
Zubizarreta, Armando 1983 La aventura del trabajo intelectual: como estudiar e investigar. Fondo Educativo Interamericano, Mexico.Google Scholar