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Although far from numerous, comprising less than a dozen structured teams, French archaeologists are quite active everywhere from the Arctic to Tierra del Fuego. Major activity is centered on Mesoamerica and Central America and the Andes, but a policy of working with national and local authorities has led to French intervention in brazil, Uruguay, argentina, Nicaragua, and the caribbean. The Piaui project with N. Guidon in Brazil and the Tomayoc project with D. Lauallee in Argentina are recent examples of this cooperation. This contractual attitude of such research can be criticized, since it apparently fosters dispersed work devoid of scientific cohesion. But current research, as a matter of fact, is less rigid and much more pragmatic than former research, thus allowing more flexibility. And since the number of active teams is quite reduced, it is up to the researchers themselves to give these projects their scientific orientation.

One can easily identify the main lines of thought along which these research studies are organized. The main themes remain, of course, the study of High Civilization, that is, the culture of the Andean area (D. Lavallee, J.F. Bouchard in Tumaco, Loja, Piura, Junin) and the Maya area (P. Becquelin, C.F. Baudez, A. Ichon in Copan, Tonina, the Guatemala highlands, and the Puuc area), in direct connection with the IFEA and the CEMCA. But alongside these “geographical-cultural” aspects, there is an interest in frontiers. In Mesoamerica, the northern frontier has generated several projects in the Huasteca (Stresser, Pean, Michelet) Rio Verde and San Luis Potosi, Michoacan (Michelet, Arnauld), Guanajuato, Coamiles (Soustelle). The Central American civilizations and their connections and relationships with Mesoamerica were the focus of several projects (C. F. Baudez in Los Naranjos, Papagayo, Diquis, the Chontales area, and the Azuero peninsula). In South America, the same is true with regard to the Tumaco–La Tolita project (J. F. Bouchard).

These projects developed naturally into a preoccupation with contacts between the High Civilizations and their neighbors and thus led to excavations in peripheral zones (in Mexico, the Sonora project, led by Rodriguez); in South America (the Xingu and Uruguay projects); in the Caribbean area (excavations in Guyana, Martinique, and Guadeloupe). The Arctic and Tierra del Fuego field research fit in with this approach as well, but it can also be regrouped with the main thrust by which French archaeologists can make the best use of prehistoric archaeology—that is, the Neolithic processes in the Americas. Research studies in this respect have mostly been conducted in South America (in Jujuy, Telarmachay Piaui, Paijan, Puerto Chacho, and Minas Gerais); in Mexico some French archaeologists took part in the Tehuacan or Zohapilco excavations.

French archaeology in the Americas may seem dispersed, but this perception actually stems from the discipline’s scientific approach rather than from a lack of cohesion. Clearly, the current policy, which combines existing official backing with a more pragmatic attitude, corresponds more closely with the needs of a scientific approach and with the evolution of research structures in the Americas.

Eric Taladoire