Postcolonial Theories and Modernity

Material culture is the core of studies in archaeology. Globalizing processes affect cultures modifying them in terms of materiality. An approach to these changes in a time-space plane using the postcolonial theories, offers the possibility to analyze the materiality from the perspective of hybridization; the product of the dialogue between two sides which in turn creates a third space of ambivalence. In this paper, I focus first on a comparative analysis between globalization and postcolonial theories. I apply these concepts to the analysis of ritual objects of the indigenous Huichol in Mexico showing how their material culture has experienced hybridization. To accomplish this, I present a study of the first explorers and ethnographers in the Huichol region in the late twentieth century to understand their historical and social context and the procedures used to collect objects.