Social archaeology: an alternative paradigm to the Anglo-American one

Abstract

Since the creation of the School of Anthropology at the Central University of Venezuela, in the 1950’s, research has begun to be conducted by Venezuelans coming from that Center. We have, from now on, two tendencies: the first one is composed by researchers who keep using the North-American paradigm; the second one is more critical, aimed at analyzing the past’s social-historical contexts. The social archaeology that has been practiced, since the end of the 1960’s, shares the same theoretical position, which affirms the existence of an archaeological science of society, its development and transformations, as a subject matter of knowledge. This theoretical position is based, in a very explicitly way, on an ethical posture that implies in assuming a political compromise with the studied society.