Speaking With the Other and Not Only About the Other: Reflections for a Postcolonial Archaeology

Abstract

This text proposes to provoke an interdisciplinary reflection on alterity as challenged through investigations in archaeology. It intends to analyse the process of archaeological practice in a contemporary Latin American context. Archaeological practice configures criteria for selecting a specific cultural heritage collection, and in turn, this reflects what should be forgotten or what has the right to be remembered by the society. It also aims to contribute to the speech practice and audience of the subjects, in order to problematize the experience of research and the researcher through ethnography and discussions in the postcolonial archaeology; these could promote a point of schism where paradigms for archaeological studies may reach a breaking point.