CENTRO ITALIANO STUDI E RICERCHE ARCHEOLOGICHE PRECOLOMBIANE
25122 BRESCIA (ITALIA) - Via delle Grazie, 6
The Italian Centre for Study and Research of Pre-Columbian Archaeology is a non profit cultural association, and its Founders have now long been dedicated to studies and operative researches on the sites where pre-Columbian American cultures and civilizations flourished.
A methodical study of the societies developed in the two Americas during the pre-Columbian period certainly is a heavy task, and it cannot be supported by the individuals alone. The extension of the territories, the difficulties that Nature often raises in front of the investigators, the complexity and the abundance of manifestations handed down by native people who lived across thousands of years, the need to enrich the individuals own knowledge; these all find suitable support in the Centre which stands as a reference point, allowing the single researchers to go deeper into and to expand investigations which would otherwise be limited only to a restricted field of interests.
OBJECTS.
The object of the Centre is the study of cultures and civilizations of the pre-Columbian America, from its origins to the extintion caused by the Conquest.
To pursue this aim it is necessary:
The Centre activity doesn’t have frontiers: while studies, meetings and discussions find their ideal setting at the Centre, operative researches of archaelogical nature naturally pertain to the "New World": museums, collections and libraries from the whole world is where initiatives of study and operative researches become real, and where the newly aquired knowledge irradiates from.
The Centre doesn’t have a specified area of interest: they are the Members themselves who mould the "face" of the Centre, with their interests, their documentations, the outcome of their studies. From the lands of North America to those of Patagonia, through the Caribe, the Centre has "room" for all those who have a reason of interest in pre-Columbian cultures and civilizations.
At the Centre each Member receives the attentions which are distinctive of self-managed associations. The member becomes consumer and producer at the same time.
Consumer, because he can benefit from the experience of the individuals and of the group, from the materials collected by the Centre, from the organization the Centre gives to make operative missions possible and easier, from the publications and their diffusion; at the same time, the consumer gets the chance to work at the same level with those members already active at the Centre.
Producer, because he brings constructive efforts, actively partecipates in the life of the Centre, and is member himself of the missions for researches and studies.
OPERATIVE RESEARCHES
Researches promoted by the Centre become the natural complement of the organizing activity. Expecially where a shortage or lack of researches and studies call for the scientific need, for individuals or groups, to organize directly or to take part in the missions and in the research campaigns, either on the site or at some museums, whether in Italy or in the Countries of each continent.
Missions abroad, organized by the Centre for the study of cultures and civilizations of the past, are meant both to satify the purposes of the Centre, and to provide archaeological expertise to governative Institutions and Cultural and Scientific Organizations of those Countries where cultures and civilizations of the pre-Columbian period came to light.
SPREADING OF KNOWLEDGE
The Centre is a place for meeting and exchange experiences, where workshops, conferences, seminars, practical courses of laboratory and excavation campaigns abroad periodically take place. At the Centre, scholars can find at their hands all documentation needed for their work and their researches. The Centre provides the Members with copies of its documentations, with a refund for the costs only, and, where possible, supplies informations useful or needed to enable students and researchers to contact other public or private organizations directly, to consult or to obtain the requested documentation. The Centre has its operative branch on advanced stage of realization in the city of Nasca, in Peru, which is going to act in cooperation with, and under the supervision of the governative, scientific and cultural authorities of that area.
>From that branch, which is continuosly in touch with the head office of the Centre in Italy, the members interested into Incas and pre-Incas cultures will also be able to operate. The properties of that branch is going to be represented by the ground, the buildings, the museum, the library, the furnishings, the instruments, the restoration workroom and finally all the equipement necessary for the excavation campaigns. Such a property, which is permanently located in Peru, represents an important contribution to the local culture from an Italian Centre of Studies.
The Italian head office of the Centre is going to function as a coordinator for initiatives and operative activities to be carried out on the spot by the members.
The management of the operative branch abroad will be held on the spot, and by no means any income will be diverted from the branch to the Centre in Italy.
Therefore the operative branch is meant to have its own organization and autonomy: all services and property transfers performed made by the Italian Centre in favour of the operative branch are to be intended as full donations, in favour of scientific prosperity of the branch itself.
MANAGEMENT.
The Centre accepts financings and to be sponsored according to the law on non profit organizations.
Furthermore, it welcomes contributions and donations of goods such as bibliographies, documentaries, pictures and films, and also equipements, furnishings, instrumentations. All the gifted materials, of scientific character or not, become perennial property of the Centre. The subscription to the Centre implies that each member will supply the Centre with all of the documentations he will come across during any mission, organized by the Centre or through its support; it’s customary that each member uses his own photograpic, filming and recording equipements, and that he supplies every record to the Centre, whenever that can constitute useful documentation. If requested, according with the financial availabilities, the Centre can refund the material used by the member (films, tapes). The members who lives in the city that hosts the Centre provide for basic management, so to ensure its constant activity. However, each member has a moral obligation to collaborate for the practical needs of the Centre.
PUBLICATIONS
The Centre will publish and send free to the members an yearly Bulletin. On the other publications, the list of which will appear on the Bulletin, the members will obtain a 20% reduction on the cover price. The Centre will take care to find for the members books and publications of scientific characters, with special reductions.
LIBRARY
The Library of the Centre developes with the donations of the members and with the publications which it will receive from corresponding Organizations or Institutions.
The archives of the Centre will contain documentations over the cultures of the New World, originals or copies, which represent the fundamental instruments for studies and comparisons. It will be all members duty to supply the Centre with all documentations in their possession, or to make them available to the other members.
CULTURAL TREND
The Centre is meant to be a seat of active culture and continous education, devoted to the improvement of knowledge of Panamerican societies, flourished in precolumbian era and disappeared because of the Conquest. Common purpose of all members is to contribute to the knowledge of the precolumbian american world, to allow people to promote and to perform their own projects, through collaborations and mutual contributions. In the full reciprocal respect of individual personalities, even acting on projects of general interest.
The Centre is open to all people with cooperative attitude, respectful of the laws in Italy and abroad.
THE CENTRE OFFERS:
MEMBERSHIPS TO THE CENTRE:
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Membership Fees (in Italian Lire)
Regular Members L. 70.000 Abroad L. 80.000
Relatives L. 30.000 Abroad L. 40.000
Students L. 30.000 Abroad L. 40.000
Supporters from L. 250.000
