South America

The study of archaeology in South America began in the nineteenth century, but historical archaeology in the region has only developed in earnest since the 1980s. Given the history of colonisation of the continent, South America archaeology is usually conceived as being divided into research conducted in Portuguese speaking *Brazil and in the Spanish speaking countries originally colonised by the Spaniards. By the late twentieth century, historical archaeology within Hispanic South America is much more developed in some countries whose self-definition and identity are European, notably Argentina and Uruguay, even though there are isolated efforts also in other countries. The debates within historical archaeology of Hispanic South America include the definition of the subject, the study of ethnicity and identity, and the methodological and theoretical underpinnings of the discipline, and the prospectus for future development and unresolved issues.

                               Archaeology in Hispanic South America has been concerned mostly with prehistory. In the countries with large and impressive remains from pre-colonial Empires, as the Inka, there has been a particularly emphasis on the archaeology of this prestigious past, usually as the state has had a direct interest in fostering the creation of a national identity linked to golden pre-hispanic times. In countries like Peru, Ecuador and to a smaller extent Venezuela and Bolivia, this explains a lack of interest in historical archaeology, as the use of archaeology for building national identities has traditionally led to the search for the pre-colonial splendour. The historical period and its role in creating the different nations has been left for historians, rather than for historical archaeologists. In other countries with less impressive prehistoric remains, as notably Uruguay and Argentina, prehistoric archaeology, as an anthropological search for the “other”, the indigenous inhabitants, is often not considered relevant for building the national identity and the archaeological study of the historical period also lagged behind. In these countries, there has been a growing interest in historical archaeology, particularly after the restoration of civilian rule, after several decades of authoritarian rule which inhibited the freedom of scholars to deal with possibly sensitive historical subjects.

You can read the entire text on: Encyclopaedia of Historical Archaeology, edited by C.E. Orser, Jr., London and New York, Routledge, 2002, 513-516.