Acerca de la etnoarqueología en América del Sur

Abstract

Se resumen las principales tendencias de la etnoarqueología en América del Sur y se analiza el origen de esta sub-disciplina en el continente. Se hace especial referencias a algunos trabajos en Brasil ( de Wust, Miller, Emperaire) que son antecededentes mundiales en la investigación etnoiarqueológica pero que han sido poco reconocidos. Se examinan los alcances de la etnoarqueología y se discuten otras estrategias de investigación relacionadas. Se analizan algunos casos de estudio de la regiòn. Por último, se desarrollla un discusión acerca de los aportes de la etnoarqueología a la arqueología sudamericana y se propone una agenda futura.

Despite all of the potential that South America has for ethnoarchaeological research, the development of Ethnoarchaeology is still very limited in this region. Only in the last decade ethnoarchaeological projects have grown, specially among South American archeologists. The present article revises the conceptual foundations of this field of study and analyses its present tendencies in South America. A discussion of the field’s potential is made, not only as to what it can bring to the study of the relationship between human conduct and material derivations, but also as to the conditions in which we can expect to find certain types of archeological data. At last, the present article explores the uses that can be made out of Ethnoarchaeology in the study of other forms of thought and other patterns of rationality – forms and patterns that are hard to be identified in archeological data but are essential to understanding fundamental aspects of past societies.