The intellectual construction of the “South West Region” (USA): a reflection on the use of the concept of “cultural area” as an ideological tool.

Abstract

This article intends to discuss the intellectual establishment, in archaeology, of a concept that is today known as “The Southwest” – its alleged frontiers and its main characteristics, which would, presumably, define it and differentiate it from other regions - like Mesoamerica, for example. In order to better understand the background of such establishments, it was considered here important to investigate the construction of the “cultural area” concept, focusing on its relevance in American anthropology and archaeology since the beginnings of the XX century. Considering the establishment of the “frontiers” of the Southwest Region, it seems clear that its foundations were embedded by preconceived beliefs that, in general, understood the region as an “exclusion” of what was not Mesoamerica – or an area where supposed “intellectually inferior” humans groups had inhabited.