A World History of Nineteenth-Century Archaeology: Nationalism, Colonialism, and the Past (Oxford Studies in the History of Archaeology)

and of natives as valid interlocutors in the search for the past. Another
alternative discourse was that of miscegenation, i.e. the mixture of races, an
idea developed in the Enlightenment period and maintained by some
throughout the nineteenth century. Brazil had several cases of scholars
who saw miscegenation as a possible pathway towards civilization. One
was the director of the Museo Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, who saw the
Botocudos tribe as the example of the most underdeveloped people and
believed that transforming the Brazilian race from black to white was the
only means to civilization (Lopes & Podgorny 2001: 116). Another was the
army oYcer and anthropologist-archaeologist Couto de Magalha ̃es (1837–
98), an associate of the IHGE. His view of the racial history of Brazil was
diVerent to those described so far. Despite believing that there was a grad-
ation in the primitiveness of races, he maintained that racial mixture did not
result in degeneration but in the creation of strong, new races (Ferreira 1999;
Ferreira 2003a). He advised against military colonization similar to that of
the British in India, the Russians in Asia and the French in Algeria, as well as
against the maltreatment of native Americans then taking place in Argentina,
Chile, Peru, and Bolivia, and against the extermination policies in the US.
Instead, he argued that an understanding of the indigenous culture was
essential and the crossing of races fundamental to the creation of a strong
and courageous population adapted to the environment and climate of Brazil
(Ferreira 2003a). This discourse, however, was not expressed in museum
displays. It is also interesting to note that while some Latin American
scholars considered miscegenation in a positive light, this was not generally
the case among their colleagues in the north of the continent, who saw the
current miscegenation—mestizoization (as it was then called)—of the white
population with natives as a negative element for progress. Latin Americans,
therefore, needed North Americans to guide them towards social order
and progress. This was American Manifest Destiny in Central and South
America. One of those believing this was Squier, mentioned earlier in this
section (Squier & Davis 1848: 155).

PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

The route towards the institutionalization of prehistoric antiquities

In Asia, in addition to the monumental remains associated with the civiliza-
tions of the Scythes, Islamism, Buddhism, Hinduism, the Khmer, and
Champa (Chapters 7 to 9), other discoveries were made that were dated to

Archaeology of the Primitive 293