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Archaeology ’ s Potential Contribution to the Future

SUMMARY Archaeology can play a significant role in development projects, especially those focusing on improving agricultural production. Local agricultural systems, both prehistoric and traditional, are commonly neglected by development groups seeking to introduce Western capital-intensive technologies. Although research on these systems has received only a minuscule percentage of funds compared to research on Western systems, it has been demonstrated that many of these traditional systems can be both efficient and productive. Throughout the Americas, traces of relict agricultural field systems can be found (for example, terraces, raised fields, and irrigation canals) that were part of once highly productive landscapes. Archaeology is unique in that it provides the methodology to examine such systems in a diachronic perspective. Because many systems, such as raised fields, From Clark Erickson, “Applied Archaeology and Rural Development: Archaeology’s Potential Contribution to the Future,” Journal of the Steward Anthropological Society 20 (l-2): l-16, 1992. have been completely abandoned, archaeology may be the only way to understand these technologies. Archaeological excavation of prehistoric agricultural features can provide the model for the rehabilitation of these abandoned field systems. A recent case of applied archaeology which combines raised field agricultural studies and rural development in the South central Andes of Peru is presented.