MONOGRÁFICO: ARQUEOLOGÍA DE LA ARQUITECTURA EN LATINOAMÉRICA: UNA FUSIÓN DE TENDENCIAS / MONOGRAPH: ARCHAEOLOGY OF ARCHITECTURE IN LATIN AMERICA: A FUSION OF TRENDS

Introduction: Archaeology of Architecture and Latin America, a round-trip journey

Agustín Azkarate[1]

University of Basque Country / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU)

GPAC. Built Heritage Research Group

Unesco Chair on “Cultural Landscape and Heritage”

ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0240-4960

e-mail: agustin.azkarate@gmail.com

For this brief presentation we are going to use, almost literally, some ideas we wrote some years ago (Azkarate 2013Azkarate, A. 2013: “La construcción y lo construido. Arqueología de la Arquitectura”, in J. A. Quirós (dir.), La materialidad de la historia. La arqueología en los inicios del siglo XXI, pp. 281-308. Ed. Akal, Madrid.) about Latin America and what is referred to as Archaeology of Architecture (AA). Unlike European historiography, which tends to discuss the fields to which AA should refer, we praised the versatility shown by the archaeology of that region, which wastes no time in invoking the “archaeology of architecture” regardless of the focus of its thematic approaches and the theoretical positions that support them. This is an extremely different position from that found in Europe, for example, which is much more restrictive in specifying the boundaries of certain thematic and methodological fields.

This Latin American regional trait probably derives from the researchers’ flexibility, forged by theoretical and methodological influences from diverse sources, both of Anglophone origin - basically American - and from the European tradition. However, above all, it is a consequence of the will -renewed and diversified - of a type of archaeological research that, in rejecting the pervading modernity, has been giving rise to “creative forms of archaeology” over the years (Tantaleón 2019Tantaleán, H. 2019: “Nunca fuimos apolíticos: comentarios a “En contra del populismo reaccionario: hacia una nueva arqueología pública”, Chúngara. Revista de Antropología Chilena, 51, 1, pp. 133-135. https://doi.org/10.4067/s0717-73562019005000804: 233) and to a discourse that, in many aspects, is different from the view imposed by western academic approaches[2].

It is not surprising that, among the increasingly extensive production of historiography, it is possible to find publications that address the construction and management aspects of historical architecture (Arrazcaeta 2002Arrazcaeta, A. 2002: “Habana vieja: Arqueología en edificios históricos”, Gabinete de Arqueología, 2, pp. 14-23. ; Cohen 2011Cohen, D. 2011: Arqueología de la Arquitectura. Una aproximación al estudio de los edificios. Facultad de Arquitectura y Diseño, Bogotá.; Benedet 2012Benedet, V. 2012: “La arquitectura colonial de Buenos Aires. Análisis historiográfico, balance crítico y nuevas herramientas para su estudio”, Bibliographica Americana. Revista interdisciplinaria de estudios coloniales, 8, http://www.bn.gov.ar/revistabibliographicaamericana; Cirigliano 2015aCirigliano, A. T. and Andrade, R. 2015a: “Archaeology of Architecture: the evaluation of the Harris Matrix to architectural stratifications”, Reuso, pp. 87-94., 2015bCirigliano A. T. and Andrade, R. 2015b: “Archaeology of Architecture: Contributions to the History of Brazilian construction – Reflections on the applicability of Harris Matrix”, in B. Bowen, D. Friedman, T. Leslie y J. Ochsendorf (eds.), Proceedings of the Fifth International Congress on Construction History, 1, pp. 455-462. The Construction History Society of America, Chicago, Illinois.), investigations that deal with pre-Hispanic monumental and ceremonial architecture that places greater emphasis on its spatial and symbolic aspects (Acuto and Gifford 2007Acuto, F. A. and Gifford, C. 2007: “Lugar, Arquitectura y narrativas de poder. Relaciones sociales y experiencias en los centros Inkas de los Andes del Sur”, Arqueología Suramericana 3 (2), pp. 135-161.), major studies on pre-Columbian “archaeology of domestic architecture” from diverse theoretical perspectives (Scattolin et al. 2009Scattolin, M. C., Cortés, L. I., Bugliani, M. F., Calo, C. M., Pereyra-Domingorena, L., Izeta, A. and Lazzari, M. 2009: “Built landscapes of everyday life: a house in an early agricultural village of north- western Argentina”, World Archaeology, 41 (3), pp. 396-414. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438240903112310; Albeck et al. 2010Albeck, M. E., Scattolin, M. C. and Korstanje, M. A. 2010: El hábitat prehispánico. Arqueología de la arquitectura y de la construcción del espacio organizado. Editorial de la Universidad Nacional de Jujuy, San Salvador de Jujuy.; Haber 2010Haber, A. 2010: “Monumento y sedimento en la arquitectura del oasis”, in M. E. Albeck, M. C. Scattolin and M. A. Korstanje (eds.), El hábitat prehispánico, pp. 271-298. Universidad Nacional de Jujuy, San Salvador de Jujuy., 2011Haber, A. 2011: La casa, las cosas y los dioses. Arquitectura doméstica, paisaje campesino y teoría local. Encuentro GRupo Editor, Córdoba.), contributions from contemporary urban contexts (Schávelzon 2012Schávelzon, D. 2012: La Casa del Naranjo. Arqueología de la Arquitectura en el contexto municipal de Buenos Aires. Aspha Ediciones, Buenos Aires.), or proposals that abandon the typological approach taken by traditional research into architecture in favour of delving into the socio-political connotations concealed in the shaping of built-up areas (Funari and Zarankin 2003Funari, P. and Zarankin, P. 2003: “A social archaeology of housing from a Latin American perspective: a case study”, Journal of Social Archaeology, 3 (1), pp.23-45. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605303003001097; Zarankin and Niro 2006Zarankin, A. and Niro, C. 2006: “La materialización del sadismo; Arqueología de la arquitectura de los Centros Clandestinos de Detención de la dictadura militar argentina (1976-1983)”, in P. Funari and A. Zarankin (eds.), Arqueología de la represión y la resistencia en América Latina en la era de las dictaduras (décadas de 1960-1980), pp. 59-182. Universidad Nacional de Catamarca y Encuentro Grupo Editor, Córdoba, Argentina.; Diana et al. 2008Diana, A. N., Doval, J., Giorno, P. F. and Haro, M. T. 2008: “Si las paredes hablaran: el caso de la ex Regional de Inteligencia de Buenos Aires (R.I.B.A.)”, Comechingonia Virtual. Revista Electrócnica de Arqueología, 2, pp. 73-109.; Zarankin and Salerno 2011Zarankin, A. and Salerno, M. 2011: “The engineering of genocide: An archaeology of dictatorship in Argentina”, in A. Myers and G. Moshenska (eds.), Archaeologies of Internment, pp. 207-227. Springer, New York.). Based on the instrumental tooling of “space syntax”, the Foucaultian inspiration is unquestionable in this approach to architecture as coercive spaces and technologies of power (Foucault 1984Foucault, M. 1984: Vigilar y Castigar [Paris, 1975]. Siglo XXI, Madrid.). Some of these points of view are reflected in this monograph.

Despite this open-mindedness, there is something in the archaeology of that region that remains a challenge. Latin American archaeology is not accustomed to working on above level 0 archaeology, i.e. on buildings that are still standing and in use. Indeed, with few exceptions, they appear to have given up working above the ground. We find this troubling, since the mistake could be made of leaving built heritage - particularly in cities - in the hands of those who study it from conservative historiographic perspectives and/or who only see it as a set of spaces that can be given another function or demolished based on strictly financial interests (Azkarate 2013Azkarate, A. 2013: “La construcción y lo construido. Arqueología de la Arquitectura”, in J. A. Quirós (dir.), La materialidad de la historia. La arqueología en los inicios del siglo XXI, pp. 281-308. Ed. Akal, Madrid.). Needless to say, this is not just a Latin American problem.

Our scientific link with Latin America goes back to the year 2000 when, invited by Eusebio Leal Spengler and Roger Arrazcaeta, we gave a seminar on “The Archaeology of Architecture” at the Havana Archaeology Office on February 29 and March 1 of that year. Subsequently, we have been invited to deliver PhD courses and seminars on the Archaeology of Architecture in various establishments, mainly in Puerto Rico, Peru, Uruguay, and Argentina. It was in this context of uninterrupted contacts over two decades that the need to work transversally between the two continents arose. Two lines of research emerged from this desire, both of which currently focus on the field of historical archaeology.

The first[3] emerged in response to an observation: we had to free ourselves from the loop into which the Archaeology of European Architecture was in danger of becoming trapped. By dealing predominantly with architecture with marked stratigraphic visibility (“naked” architecture) belonging to fundamentally medieval historical contexts (Christian and Islamic), it was ignoring much of the “dressed” architecture of modern and contemporary times - a strategic error for a field that should have a more timeless and holistic vocation. It could be said that the Archaeology of European Architecture has created a no man’s land in which there is a risk of overlooking and failing to pay attention to the “dressed” architecture belonging to these more recent centuries to the extent it deserves. The exchange of experiences between the two continents is giving rise to an extremely interesting context in which knowledge is being created.

The second[4] extends the context to cities - that overwhelmingly key scenario in the near future. It is based on the idea that cities are the product of a dialogue between the fixed and the flowing, the things that remain in a given space, and the dynamics that transform them. Beneath the reality that we can see, there are, therefore, hidden structures, underlying patterns of behaviour that affect the forms and mode of being of that reality - a permanent confluence or clash between “planned development” and “spontaneous development” (García-Gómez 2009García-Gómez, I. 2009: “Sistemas complejos y arqueología. Una aproximación teórica al fenómeno urbano”, Arqueología de la Arquitectura, 6, pp. 61-92. https://doi.org/10.3989/arqarqt.2009.09007). Reflecting on the urban phenomenon, committing to its sustainable development, to people’s memories and identities at a neighbourhood level is a matter of great urgency. More so at a time when urban space has become a commodity and when unapologetic real estate capitalism has resulted in increasingly frequent and outrageous cases of destruction of our heritage (Azkarate and Azpeitia 2016Azkarate, A. and Azpeitia A. 2016: “Paisajes Urbanos Históricos: ¿nuevo paradigma o subterfugio?”, in M. Jurkovic and A. Chavarria (eds.), Alla ricerca di un pasato complesso. Contributi in onore di gian Pietro Brogiolo, pp. 307-326. University of Zagreb - International Research Center for Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Motovun, Croatia.).

These two lines of thought will be developed further by researchers from the various universities on both sides of the Atlantic. We would like to use these lines to extend an invitation to all those interested in sharing experiences and knowledge.

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