Imperialisms, National States and classical archeology: The archaeological studies’ paths of Germany and Brazil

Abstract

In this article, we organize the links between archeology and the interconnected movements of the European and South American imperialism, in the German and Brazilian national states cases, both at the service of the idea of nation and its colonizing mission. The classical archeology and the Luso-German-Brazilian entanglement culminated in the creation of the IHGB (1838), later, the National Museum (1892). The Paulista Museum (1891), by its turn, was designed to be another state museum, under the auspices of modernity, promoted by the agitation of the cultural scene in 1922. Access to the French schools (EFA and EFR), consolidated a new generation of Brazilian researchers and its own academic tradition and epistemologies. The German classicism case developed through the Deutsche Archäologische Institut (DAI) in Rome, which expanded its frontiers and relationship with other territorialities. Arts-oriented German classical archeology was developed much less essentialist. However, as in the Brazilian case, the long-term approaches, relationships between emergent institutes and territorialities, marked German’s classical trajectory. Therefore, understanding both the trajectories and traditions of research allows us to question the condition of nation-states in the information age and glimpse new approaches and the potential of archaeological thought itself in the information age.

Keywords:
classical archeology; imperialisms; National States; Brazil; Germany