La arqueología del sector occidental de la región pampeana. Trayectoria y reposicionamiento respecto a la arqueología nacional

Abstract

La Pampa Province is placed in a geographical central position within the national territory. However, the archaeological knowledge about its past just starts to take shape around 1980. Archaeological knowledge has reached a promising development under the impulse of various working groups and the support of provincial and national institutions. From this, the knowledge of the pre and post-Hispanic past has been repositioned on the interest aroused for local and regional researchers themselves as well as for neighbouring regions, to the extent that many data and research results have led to reconsider macro-regionally the system of social, political, and technological organization and the demography of pre-existing societies. The indigenous roads node, settlements, and cemeteries where ancient people left signs has promoted the development of an important body of information from different disciplines and topics such as population dynamics, bioarchaeology, landscape archaeology, historical archaeology, origin of cultural resources and materials, social interaction, archaeobotany, biogeography, isotopic ecology, taphonomy, among many other approaches to come. This has encouraged also the relationship between researchers and local communities and its interest in the knowledge of the past, making them guardians and custodians of this legacy.