ABSTRACT
Latin American social archaeology has been described as a monolithic theoretical current carried out by government patronage. Historical circumstances such as the Peruvian juntas, the ascendance of leftist governments in Mexico, the Cuban communist revolution, and the mix of military dictatorships and leftist political parties in countries such as Venezuela provided the context for the development of Marxist archaeology. Marxist archaeology in Latin America emerged in 1974, when Luis Lumbreras published Archaeology as a Social Science. Later, in 1960, he obtained the degree of Doctor of Arts with a major in archaeology and ethnology. He also worked at the famous site of Wari. Significantly, one of his main contributions to Peruvian archaeology is his theory that Wari was an empire with its capital near the city of Huamanga where Tello also had previously worked, offering a diffusionist argument. It was in this context that the archaeologist Luis Lumbreras emerged in tandem with what is known as "Latin American social archaeology".
