CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

In the present work there are discussed some aspects adopted by the archaeological practice in the Argentine Republic over the last years. It is supported that, beyond personal theoretical allegiances exists a common model of archaeological practice, supported by the strong definition of a disciplinary "field" (in Bourdieu´s terms). Among the principal components of that model are counted: 1) an almost absolute predominance of academic archaeology in against to professional archaeology; 2) a long empiricist and sceptical tradition in relation to the possibilities of construction of the past through archaeological means, although this doesn´t imply any serious obstacle for the "conversion" of a growing number of researchers to some kind of postprocesual position in virtue of an also guaranteed long tradition of opportunism in the adoption of theoretical frameworks; 3) a deeply internalised conception of archaeology as a hobby or sport that reproduces itself along the time through various selective mechanisms of the members of the field. It is outlined that the high degree of autonomy of archaeological field is based on the extended resistance of archaeologists to admit the distinction among technical aspects of the archaeological reconstruction of the past, and the level of anthropological interpretation where archaeological specificity necessarily should be diluted. This outline is opposed to recent trends that argue for a supposed "craft unity" of archaeological practice, without implicating a renouncement to the transforming character of the archaeological cultural practice, understood as micro-political, but exactly the opposite. Finally it is made reference to some basic tenets for the construction of an alternative approach to the society -material culture relation. The same involves aspects such as transdisciplinariety, diffusion strategies to the public sphere, writing of archaeological texts and the status of the field work in the context of distribution of research facilities.

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