ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to give an explanatory introduction to the significance of the archaeological culture of San Agustín and to the present state of research concerning its possible historical, and therefore cultural, links with other American societies. Both the attempt to interpret the meaning of culture and to relate this meaning to the cultural expressions of preHispanic societies unite the central questions of archaeology, insofar as such interpretations would lift the veil of uncertainty produced by that past being concealed in the strange forms and objects spread throughout the Upper Magdalena River. I consider here that in the southwest of Colombia a great culture developed which combined its remote Amazonian origins with the processes of construction of the Andean cultures, in order to generate a sui generis culture, as its difference lies in its resemblance to other cultures. As such, elements of the culture of San Agustín are found in an increasingly broad extent of territory.
