ABSTRACT
The nature of scientific disciplines varies in each society, each country, and each historical context, and this is certainly true of archaeology. Over the years, the discipline has diversified into a great number of subfields. Within Mexico, we now even have such new areas of research as underwater archaeology, colonial-era archaeology, and industrial archaeology. At this time, however, Indigenous archaeology as defined by the participation of the Indigenous people does not yet exist here. This is primarily because being Indigenous is not restricted to a minority but represents a large middle class. The establishment of the Mexican republic in the early 20th century had a definite impact on the formation of its federal institutions and on the role that archaeology would come to have. The Instituto Nacional de Antropologa e Historia (INAH) was established in 1939 with the objective of bringing together within its structure one of the nation's greatest resources, its historical and archaeological heritage.
