Suppositions and conceptions of the pre-Colombian image of the “not-Argentine” in the works of Samuel Lafone Quevedo, Adan Quiroga, and Juan Ambrosetti

Abstract

This paper explores the assumptions and concepts that supported the interpretations of archaeological images, during the beginnings of archeological research in the argentine northwest (1880-1900), the interpretation of archaeological images. It focuses on the work of Samuel Lafone Quevedo, Adán Quiroga and Juan Ambrosetti that developed in tune with the concerns of the era about origins that define national identity. This raises the question about how to place pre-Hispanic cultures in the context of argentine history. The three scholars of argentine northwest archaeology reconstructed the pre-Columbian past while assuming that the images of the pieces were texts to decipher. When positivist evolution triumphed, placing archaeology on the side of the natural sciences, this approach was definitively abandoned.