Archaeology has been defined as the "study of the human, cultural, and social past whose goals are to narrate the sequent study of the past and to explain the events that composed it".
I
nterest in archaeology (and Latin American archaeology)
began with the "discovery" of the Americas. The people who arrived had many
questions about the phenomenon that they saw. Many of these questions, such as,
"What is the origin of these people?" were archaeological in nature. The
finding of native American tribes in Latin America also spawned questions about
the origin of the species. If everyone is from Adam and Eve, where did these
people come from? Many thought if they could not have come from Adam or Eve,
the native American tribes must be beasts. Some thought that the tribes came
from the lost continent of Atlantis. Others had already come up with theories
of settlement from Asia or Scandinavia.
Throughout the history of archaeology and Latin-American archaeology there have been many different periods and trends.
The Speculative Period is the age when the idea of archaeology was conceived. It is called the Speculative Period because this was the time directly following Columbus's voyage to the Americas and many people were questioning or speculating about the new people and other never before seen things and places in the New World.
The first trend in the Speculative Period was in the 16th and 17th centuries and primarily concentrated on Latin America. This trend was composed of stories and chronicles of people (mainly priests and other administrators) who had traveled with the Spanish conquistadors. These chronicles were narratives in story form and were generally non-scientific in nature.
The second trend was in the 18th and 19th centuries
and like the first trend consisted of the narratives of explorers and
travelers. However, it differs from the first trend in that it wasmore
scientific in tone and method. These people actually used scientific ideas and
methods instead of merely describing and forming untested
theories about what they
observed.
The third trend originated in the 18th and 19th centuries, which overlapped the second trend. It is differentiatedfrom the first two trends, because in this period, archaeology became the main concern of the explorers and travelers. It was not merely a byproduct of their exploration of the area while looking for land and gold.
This period is characterized by a distinct change of attitude and outlook by many important archaeological writers and workers who strived to change archaeology into a scientific, systematic discipline. The Classificatory/Descriptive period received its name from people wanting to scientifically classify and describe the phenomenon that they found. These people lay the groundwork for the twentieth century.
The Classificatory-Historical Period was also concerned with scientifically classifying the phenomenon, but differed because it also attempted to place the information into historical context. This period was concerned with the concept of chronology which means placing different cultures and artifacts within their appropriate time periods. It had two main trends. The first was concerned more with precise scientific methods of excavation. The second trend is differentiated by the concern with placing the artifacts found into context and to find their function within the culture studied and within history. The consideration of artifacts, as the material evidence of cultural and social behavior, focussed on the relationship between culture and the natural environment, and the attention placed on the settlement patterns of the cultures studied are characteristics of this trend.
The final period, the period we are presently in, is the Explanatory Period, which started in 1960. This period is set apart by its concern with evolutionary theory, general systems theory and deductive reasoning.
Bernardino de Sahagun, Bishop Diego de Landa and Fray Bertolome de Las Casas were the first Latin American archaeologists. They were located within the first and second trends of the Speculative Period. They were important because they began asking scientific, archaeological questions.
John L. Stevens and Frederick Catherwood explored the Yucatan and Central America together during the Classificatory/Descriptive Period.
Perhaps most important of all was Max Uhle, a German scholar who was an archaeologist in Peru during the Classificatory/Descriptive period as well as the Classificatory-Historical Period. He won immense stature for his work in South America.
Willey, Gordon R. and Jeremy A Sabloff. A History of American
Archeology. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Co., 1974.
Brew, O.J., One Hundred Years of Anthropology. London: Oxford University Press, 1968.