Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to shed light onto the underlying effects resulting from the modern opposition of 'reason' to 'tradition'. These are still latent in contemporary theoretical issues that, in turn, constrain the development of alternative approaches to the study of prehistoric contact.

Paper long abstract:

In its most basic sense, tradition is "anything which is transmitted and handled down from the past to the present" (Shils 1981: 12). Nevertheless, it is not difficult to glimpse that if our use of the concept would follow accordingly to its definition, many practices that are not considered part of (or) a tradition would become traditional.

In this consideration attention is given to the historical trajectory that concluded with the opposition of the notion of 'reason' to that of 'tradition'. The creation of this dichotomy was central to the institutionalisation of the different social disciplines during the ninetheth century (Wallerstein 2002). It has also been fundamental for the characterisation of the West, and, most importantly, for the delineation of the so-called 'Other'.

In this paper, I will examine how the characterisation of the 'Other' has played against the development of alternative strategies to explore contexts of prehistoric contact. An analysis concerning both the use of ethnographic analogies and the incorporation of the notion of agency are central for this discussion.