Anthropology:Archaeology

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Recent studies exploring social memory have led to a growing literature on the 'archaeology of memory' that examines the ways material culture is deployed to make cultural statements about the past by modern, historic, and prehistoric societies. Nonetheless, the archaeology of memory encounters significant theoretical problems and terminological vagaries, shortcomings resolved by an inclusive and more robust theoretical position, the theory of practice. These issues illuminate recent archaeological data from the site of Santa Rosa, Department of Tumbes, Peru, where a specific place -a class of sacred spaces known in the Andes as a huaca -was the locus for ritual acts between circa BCE 3550-2700 and CE 1470. Although Santa Rosa exhibits a spatially recurrent significance, the distinctive material signatures are separated by substantial hiatuses and fundamentally different cosmologies. While Santa Rosa might appear as the locus of social memory, the archaeological patterns are better explained by reference to a theory of practice.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].