Politics, Bureaucracy, and the Past: The Belo Monte HPP and Archaeological Legislation in Brazil (1986–2015)

This project aims to understand the changes over time in archaeological science in Brazil and the legislation that guides this practice, from the 1980s to 2015. To this end, an emblematic case involving science, the state, its policies, and bureaucracies will be analyzed: the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP), on the Volta Grande do Rio Xingu, in the state of Pará. The period spans from the enactment of the first laws that included archaeology in environmental licensing studies, the initiation of studies for the HPP’s construction, to the year the project was inaugurated and new archaeological legislation was announced. This perspective links Brazil's political and economic history with the theoretical and methodological trajectory of Brazilian archaeology. Additionally, it highlights the development of this discipline as a scientific practice within, and in the service of the state, while examining its discourse and relationship with the territory, indigenous peoples, and the past.