Thinking about archaeology from the south

Abstract

By the end of twentieth century, the confluence of various movements which involved a wide range of actors, social customs and practices in relation to the archaeological materiality resulted in the development of Public Archaeology. Within this framework, some programs of action and also reflective analytical approaches have been developed. The last addressed the past-present relationship and the positioning of the archaeologists in these processes. In this paper, it is emphasized the necessity of considering the relation between archaeology and society inside the social and historical features of the universe that give them meaning. With the aim of discussing this assumption, the historical processes that particularize the Public Archaeology in Latin America are examined; in this development, the archaeological knowledge is constructed as knowledge about an ‘other’ which is not recognized as a part of ‘our’ history. Finally, a list of problems related to Public Archaeology in the Southern countries (Latin America, Oceania and Africa) is proposed.