Archaeology and Politics in Argentina During the Last 50 Years

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to discuss the relationship between archaeological practice and theory, on the one hand, and the political context in Argentina since 1958, on the other. The year 1958 is considered as a turning point in the history of archaeology in Argentina because of two structural changes introduced to the teaching of archaeology and to the organization of scientific research in general. The first change relates to the inception of graduate-level courses in anthropology in two main universities, the University of Buenos Aires and La Plata University, while the second one is linked to the formation of the National Council of Scientific and Technical Investigation (CONICET). Undoubtedly, these changes represent a context in which archaeology gained identity as an academic discipline and recognition as a scientific practice, very much like the natural sciences. Thus, 1958 highlights the starting point for our analysis with the objective of exploring the relationship between archaeological praxis and theory within a sociopolitical context. Special political circumstances existed particularly in Argentina, but also in the southern region of South America, where democratic governments (some fully while other partly democratic) alternated with strong military regimes over the past half-century and significantly influenced the development of archaeology in the region. Such context provides, in our view, interesting data to understand the political aspect underlying the origin and development of national archaeologies.