ABSTRACT
Brazilian archaeology is still largely ignored both within Brazil and abroad; even within the academic world it is perceived as an ancillary discipline dealing with the remote past. Archaeology for Brazilians is, if anything, an adventurous activity to be carried out in Egypt or elsewhere but not in Brazil, due to the lack of pyramids and other ‘interesting’ remains. Prehistoric archaeology, insofar as it is concerned with native Americans, is usually dismissed as an unnecessary search for the barbarous and uncivilised Indians. The only exception is the case of the attention paid by the media, and as a side effect by the public, to the earliest human remains discovered in the country. However, in the above case the interest is not directly related to the archaeological evidence or field research but to the possible primacy of Brazil with respect to the antiquity of humankind. Within academia archaeology is still considered to be subsidiary to history or anthropology; it can provide incidental illustrations of events known from contemporary documents in historical periods, as well as collecting prehistoric artifacts. In both cases, however, any analysis is left to historians or anthropologists.
