HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY FROM A WORLD PERSPECTIVE

Pedro Paulo A. Funari[1]

Abstract:

                        The paper discusses the epistemological implications of an international historical archaeology, a discipline whose features, purposes and goals are subjected to debate.  It deals with historical archaeology as an American discipline which studies the postprehistoric period, then deals with the European outlook, as it prefers to divide archaeologies according to time periods, like classical, medieval and industrial archaeologies. The association of historical archaeology and the study of global capitalism is discussed and confronted to the non-capitalist features of Latin America. The paper proposes that a world perspective would stress pluralism and dialogue between the different archaeological traditions, to the benefit of knowldege itself.

Key words:

Historical archaeology; Americas and Europe; World archaeology; Medieval archaeology; Classical archaeology.