The debate on the American peopling at the beginning of xxi century

LAURA MIOTTI; FLEGENHEIMER, NORA; MÓNICA SALEMME; TED GOEBEL

Current Research in the Pleistocene

TAMU

Lugar: Texas; Año: 2012 vol. Spec p. 3 - 9

8755-898X

A meeting on the late-Pleistocene peopling of the Americas held November 2010 at La Plata, Argentina, was the fifth in a series of international symposia on this topic originally organized by Mexican scholars. This book and the bonds established between archaeologists are two main results this event produced. Both of them are crucial to the development of this area of inquiry and in different ways are relevant to filling the gaps in research on the early peopling of South America and the entire continent. Most of the papers in this book focus on southern South America. (At the conference the geographic focus was better balanced, and several papers on topics from Siberia, North America, and even Australia were resented). To appreciate the value of these contributions they should be placed in context. From our perspective, the knowledge gathered in the last hundred years about the peopling of the Americas has developed according to the perspectives of central and peripheral cultures (Anglo-Saxon and Latin America). We are convinced that archaeologists are builders of concepts, identities, and cultural images, and that the viewpoint underpinning archaeological research shapes its development.