UCL Institute of Archaeology

Cultural meanings and values of the past. A participatory approach to archaeology in the Atacaman Community of Peine, Chile

The aim of my research is to reach an understanding of the meanings and values of the past of the Atacaman Community of Peine (II Region, Chile), an indigenous community that has experienced severe assimilation processes in the past and is currently undergoing a process of ethnic appraisal.

Hence I have engaged in the use of a Participatory Action Research, seeking to involve the members of the community in the explanations and interpretations about their past through their own storytelling.

This, in an attempt to decolonise the archaeological practice by taking into consideration the living communities that claim descent from the past we study.

Funding organisation

• CONICYT- Chile

Supervisors

• Tim Schadla-Hall
• Ulrike Sommer
• Bill Sillar

 Educational background

• Licenciada, Anthropology with a Major in Archaeology, Universidad de Chile, 2004
• MA, Public Archaeology, UCL, 2008