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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
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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

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