Cultural Heritage Management: A Global Perspective

3. Twenty Years of Heritage Resource Management in Brazil: A Brief Evaluation (1986–2006)

3 Twenty Years of Heritage Resource Management in Brazil A Brief Evaluation (1986–2006) Paulo DeBlasis Cultural heritage resource management, including archaeology, heritage-based education, and decision making in the public sphere, is a very recent concern in Brazil. Legal specifications for evaluating environmental and cultural impact before implementation of large development enterprises have been in place for 20 years, thus promoting the emergence of environmental and sociocultural studies and related mitigation programs. Nevertheless, the overwhelming rates of economic growth and the “development at any cost” mentality still prevailing at all levels of government make it a very important political matter in Brazil today. Losses related to archaeological heritage are immense, but surely losses regarding regional traditional culture, whether indigenous or just “local” (what sometimes has been called “intangible cultural resources”), are even more severe , not only because the cultural and social characteristics of indigenous or “local” peoples are usually ignored but, more important, they are systematically estranged from decision-making processes regarding their own land and life (see Endere; Burke and Smith, this volume). These people are frequently displaced and relocated to new areas in circumstances completely adverse to their own cultural and economic habits and uses, thus in time reinforcing not only deculturation and social degradation, but also rural exodus and inflation of underdeveloped suburban peripheral areas around major towns like São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Brasília. This chapter will review the historical and legal background of cultural resource management (CRM) development in this country, as well as some recent achievements and perspectives. The first archaeological rescue programs in Brazil began in the early 1970s, mostly as a result of the hydroelectric industry initiative and large damming projects conducted by militaristic governments of the period with funding from international agencies. These programs drew attention to the impacts on the natural environment and cultural resources therein, including archaeology. To meet the need for scientific research, these enterprises turned to university- Twenty Years of Heritage Resource Management in Brazil 39 based archaeologists, who have been involved since then. At that time, archaeology as a regular academic discipline in Brazil was only ten years old, and archaeologists were trying to consolidate it as a scientific branch. Following European tradition, archaeology was in most cases related to historical and natural sciences, only rarely linked to anthropological perspectives. This first generation of professionals, attached to museums and universities, was the one to define and develop these early archaeological salvage programs, typically reproducing the operational research-praxis of a still immature academic discipline . Archaeological research in Brazil through the 1960s and 1970s alternated between two very different, and frequently opposed, research orientations, deeply influenced by the French archaeological palaeoethnographical tradition on the one hand, and the regional approach of the cultural-historical American branch on the other. During this time, archaeological survey projects were developed throughout the country, creating the first regional- and continentalscale models for interpreting the archaeological evidence of the pre-Columbian past on the eastern side of South America, as well as the first essays relating it to ethnographically known societies such as the Tupi-speaking peoples. These pioneering research programs have been heavily criticized in recent years, on both methodological and political grounds, but they produced the first macroregional perspectives for Brazilian archaeology. Much of this research, including the establishment of archaeological cultural traditions, is still in use.1 Although extensive and previously unknown portions of the country were investigated by the first contract projects, these studies resulted in rather descriptive reports involving sites’ cultural affiliations and some chronological sequencing. Some of these investigations focused on the study of only some site categories, reflecting the researchers’ interests and expertise. Results were usually self-contained, meaningless in terms of regional sampling and contextualization , and rarely presented in a broader context.2 Since 1986, when laws concerning the need for cultural resources studies and management were promulgated in Brazil, “contract” or “rescue” archaeological projects have become increasingly common throughout the country. Large-scale projects such as dams, pipelines, big hotels, and a variety of other enterprises are obliged to report on environmental impact, as well as to produce some kind of mitigation plan. This has generated a demand for archaeological expertise too great for universities to provide. As a consequence, many private companies were created, with a professional profile geared toward meeting the customers’ needs without losing the legal, ethical, and scientific perspectives of the discipline. Some companies have their own installations with laboratories and other research facilities, and...