Published in Encyclopaedia of Historical Archaeology,
edited by C.E. Orser, Jr., London and New York, Routledge,
2002, 70-71.
Brazil
The study of archaeology in Brazil begun in
the mid nineteenth century, sponsored by the Brazilian
Institute for History and Geography, at Rio de Janeiro, the
capital of the Empire, but historical archaeology in the
region has only developed in earnest since the 1980s. This is
due to several reasons, not least the fact that the country
experienced military rule from 1964 to 1985, hindering the
free search for the historical past. Given the history of
archaeology in Brazil, it is usually conceived as being
divided into prehistory, historical archaeology and *classical
archaeology. Prehistory deals with remains of indigenous
people up to AD 1500, historical archaeology covers the period
after the arrival of the Portuguese in A.D. 1500 and classical
archaeology studies the ancient civilisations of Greece and
Rome. Historical archaeology subjects include urban
archaeology, the archaeology of Catholic Missions, maroon
archaeology, heritage and educational approaches and rescue
archaeology. Historical archaeology publications and graduate
dissertations are increasingly visible in the academy and in
the society at large.
You can read
the entire text in:
Encyclopaedia of Historical Archaeology,
edited by C.E. Orser, Jr., London and New York, Routledge,
2002, 70-71.
See also:
classical archaeology, South America.
Further reading
Funari, P.P.A. (1996) ‘Historical
Archaeology in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina’, World
Archaeological Bulletin 7: 51-62.
Funari, P.P.A. (1997) ‘Archaeology,
History, and Historical Archaeology in South America’,
International Journal of Historical Archaeology 1:
189-206.
Funari, P.P.A. (1997) ‘European Archaeology
and Two Brazilian Offspring: Classical Archaeology and Art
History’, Journal of European Archaeology 5: 137-148.
Orser, C.E. (1996) A Historical
Archaeology of the Modern World, New York: Plenum.
Prous, A. (1994) ‘L’archéologie brésilienne
aujourd’hui. Problèmes et tendances’, in P. Lévêque, J.A.
Dabdab Trabulsi, and S. Carvalho (eds) Recherches
Brésiliennes: Archéologie, Histoire Ancienne et Anthropologie,
9-43, Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Pedro Paulo A. Funari