ISES   20394
INSTITUTO SUPERIOR DE ESTUDIOS SOCIALES
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
The social role of archaeologist and other researchers in distant rural areas
Autor/es:
KORSTANJE, MARÍA ALEJANDRA; QUESADA, MARCOS; MALOBERTI, MARIANA; ZAPATIEL, JULIETA; PIGONI, MARIELA; CUENYA, PATRICIA; AGUILAR VILLACORTA, INGRID
Lugar:
Kalmar
Reunión:
Congreso; Conference: People, places and stories; 2011
Institución organizadora:
Conference: People, places and stories
Resumen:
Based upon our experience working as archaeologists and environmental researchers in small and distant rural valleys – in northwest of Argentina -, we eventually began to ask ourselves about the role we are playing in those places beyond our academic expertise and regarding rural people needs.   Criticism of past ethnocentric practices in the social sciences has especially targeted the fields of anthropology and archaeology. Anthropology as a field has responded in part by distancing itself from the study of indigenous groups, ethnic groups and rural areas, instead refocusing its interest on more urban settings, groups identified by non-ethnic criteria, or general post-modern explorations, for example. In practical terms this means that in nowadays there are very few rural anthropologists working in the field. For a vast territory as Argentina and specially taking into account that the re-emergence of ethnic identities and indigenous groups is overwhelming in current days, this empty space has been in the practice occupied by archaeologists and environmental researchers who “go to the field”.   After the paradigm change, Archaeology has had to re-orient its practices as well, although the move to other areas of research has been less feasible. However, in this regard, movement of the field's research objectives beyond the traditional concern with the material culture of the past is also part of the theme that we are exploring. With the subject of cultural and natural resource management from an inter-cultural perspective, we present here the new goals for the various groups involved. We discuss these in terms of their scope and limitations, primarily based upon the cases in which we have been involved but also discussing some resonant cases of other colleagues. Most importantly, we have to acknowledge that we have not always been prepared to embark on these kinds of "adventures", in the sense that they sometimes surpass our ability to really stay involved. At the same time, there is a risk of losing our ability to conduct our own research in certain areas if we are unwilling to re-orient our archaeological practices. But in any case we feel that more and more is the social role of the researcher what is expected by the local people, but not from the governmental agencies (as universities, or other) that support our work, and this is part of the contradiction we are currently involved in.