the sole supporter of archaeological investigations through the universities and CONICET, the government agency that controlled research funding in science and technology, after 1958. During the 1960s the first generations of Argentine anthropologists and archaeologists graduated from local universities and spread their disciplines into new regions, but the northwest and Patagonia remained the most popular places for research.

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Excavations at Imiwaia, Beagle Channel,Tierra del Fuego

(Photo by Luis Orquera)

The military coups d’état in 1966 and 1976 significantly disrupted academic life and archaeological fieldwork, and many archaeologists were forced to leave Argentina. This emigration particularly affected archaeology in the northwest region. In contrast, Patagonia has experienced an archaeololgical boom since the early 1970s, due to the long-term projects of Gradín, Aschero, and Aguerre in Cueva de las Manos; Sanguinetti at the Río Gallegos basin; and Orquera and Piana at the Beagle Channel, Tierra del Fuego (see photo above). In the northwest region, hunter-gatherer archaeology became more popular, but Raffino continued to study complex societies, and the Pampas still had few archaeological teams working in it. Paradoxically, only after archaeology had been pursued in the country for more than 100 years was the first Argentine National Congress of Archaeology organized; it was held in in the city of Rosario in 1970.

At the turn of the twenty-first century, Argentine archaeology is divided by theoretical approaches, political opinions, regional interests, and academic issues. Under these conditions North American “New Archaeology” has provided a more neutral perspective, which has allowed the latest generation of Argentine archaeologists to continue working. First employed by archaeologists at the University of La Plata, New Archaeology began to play a major role in Argentina in the 1980s. North American processual archaeology was established across all regions of Argentina by different archaeologists —Politis in the Pampas, Borrero in Patagonia, and Yacobaccio and Olivera in the northwest. Due to a more neutral political perspective, a generational turnover, and the return of democracy in 1983, processual archaeology was very well received in Argentina. Its impact can be seen in the significant number of papers associated