The Oxford Handbook of South American Archaeology

The Oxford Handbook of South American Archaeology offers a comprehensive summary of recent research on the prehistory of the continent--from its early peopling to the material manifestations of modern political repression. Organized around eight themes derived from anthropological theory, historical perspectives, and contemporary social issues, most of its seventy-seven chapters are written by local scholars who are experts in their research domains. The Handbook's geographic coverage ranges from the Caribbean Sea to Tierra de Fuego, with special attention paid to the Amazon basin, where major new discoveries throughout the twenty-first century have radically transformed our understanding of this region's prehistory. There are also chapters that examine the continent's colonial era, which include archaeological studies of missions, African slavery, and extractive industries. Other topics covered include Indigenous archaeology, multivocality in service of archaeological interpretation, calls for the decolonization of archaeological practice, feminist perspectives on the struggle of women to achieve parity in the discipline, and a re-examination of the roles that museums can play in working for social change. The result is a thorough exploration of the current landscape of South American archaeology, as well as a call for new compromises that might contribute to the preservation of this continent's cultural heritage--and, hopefully, help us better anticipate social, environmental, and political crises in the future.

About the Author

Mark Aldenderfer is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology and Heritage Studies at the University of California, Merced. His research focuses on high altitude cultural and biological adaptations from an archaeological perspective. He is the author of Montane Foragers: Asana and the South-Central Andean Archaic (1998) and co-edited, with Luis Flores Blanco, "El período Arcaico en los Andes Sur-centrales: Tradiciones culturales e innovaciones tecnológicas," Chungara :43 Numero Especial 1: 333-550 (2011). Marcela Sepúlveda is a research associate at Universidad de Tarapacá in Chile and UMR8096 ArchAm (CNRS-Paris 1) in France. She is co-editor, with Rémy Chapoulie, Nino del Solar, and Verónique Wright, of Arqueometría: Estudios Analíticos en Arqueología (2016). She studies rock art, the technology of color and pigment mining in the Atacama Desert and other regions of the Andes. Eduardo Góes Neves is Professor of Archaeology and Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of University of São Paulo, Brazil. He is the author of Arqueologia da Amazônia (2006) and Sob os Tempos do Equinócio: 8.000 Anos de História na Amazônia Centra l (2022) and co-edited, with Colin McEwan and Cristiana Barreto, Unknown Amazon: Culture in Nature in Ancient Brazil (2001).