The Emberá, tourism and indigenous archaeology: "rediscovering" the past in Eastern Panama

In this article we discuss the interest of the Emberá (an Amerindian indigenous group) in collecting knowledge about material remains of the past-such as colonial and pre-colonial ceramic fragments - that are easily found in Eastern Panama. We situate this interest of the Emberá (and their desire to...

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Autores principales: Tomás Mendizábal, Dimitrios Theodossopoulos
Formato: Artículo científico
Publicado: Universidad del Norte 2012
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Acceso en línea:http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=85524641005
http://biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar/gsdl/cgi-bin/library.cgi?a=d&c=co/co-015&d=85524641005oai
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Sumario:In this article we discuss the interest of the Emberá (an Amerindian indigenous group) in collecting knowledge about material remains of the past-such as colonial and pre-colonial ceramic fragments - that are easily found in Eastern Panama. We situate this interest of the Emberá (and their desire to learn more about the past) within the context of indigenous tourism, which has inspired the articulation of new narratives about Emberá history and identity. In addition, the accidental discovery by the Emberá of ceramic fragments from past periods has instigated and facilitated archaeological investigation, a process that resulted in a reciprocal exchange of knowledge between the Emberá and the academic investigators. Such a reciprocal relationship, we argue, can contribute towards the decolonisation of archaeology, create synergies between anthropology and archaeology, and enhance indigenous representation in tourism.