Archaeology as a social practice: in search for collaborative dynamics

Abstract

During archaeological field research, researchers have been noticing that archaeological findings have increasingly been given new meanings and appropriations by local communities not only as a testimony of their history, but also as important elements in demands of land recognition and to improve social welfare. Given these demands, archaeologists have been discussing participatory and collaborative methodological strategies as alternatives to a major interaction among interlocutors in a way that both sides may have benefits from the research. This present article seeks to reflect about these methodologies from an experience taken in a local community called Comunidade Quilombola de Cinco Chagas do Matapi, in the Amapá State, Brazil. Important aspects of ethnography are approached concerning the relation of researches and various interlocutors that includes alterity, dialogy and authority. These discussions are also related to alternative education methodologies, where different ways of knowledge transmission are important mechanisms to understand the different meanings of archaeological evidences to communities. It is also imperative to a more inclusive relation between researchers and various interlocutors