Pre-hispanic education in El Salvador: A theoretical contribution derived from archaeology

Abstract

Pre-Hispanic education in El Salvador and Mesoamerica is still a dark chapter and has been little addressed by researchers in the history of education, partly because their approach has ignored direct sources of information, in this case the archaeological source, whose resource allows us to go beyond the interpretations provided by written references. Through this article, the authors open a space for theoretical debate in order to understand what must have been a pre-Hispanic educational pattern in remote territories. Thus, the present study proposes the existence of an educational scheme in the pre-Hispanic period in El Salvador, taking into account the review of cultural material recovered in at least 21 archaeological projects in various sites in the country and also compared with archaeological materials preserved in public and private archaeological collections. In its methodology, it adopts techniques from traditional archaeology, which includes observation of qualities in the pieces, concordances and differences, study of provenances and sources, review of technical reports, publications, background information and recognition of a theoretical overview. In this way, at least 33,823 artifacts and ceramic fragments from various pre-Hispanic periods and archaeological sites in El Salvador are analyzed, recovered from formal archaeological excavations, where more than 100 types and styles of manufacturing and varied decoration can be distinguished, in addition to the evaluation of more than 870 pieces from archaeological collections and documents. As a result, two basic educational functions are recognized: the teaching of the concrete and the teaching of the symbolic.