It’s particularly since "500 years discovery of the New World" was celebrated, that the precolumbian cultures started to attract a great deal of interest. Important exhibitions were organized and on every TV station documentaries were broadcast. Mexico, Guatemala and Peru are on the programme of almost every travel agency. In spite of all this, precolumbian America; the New World before the arrival of the Europeans, remains "terra incognita", unknown territory.

 

It’s hard to believe how different the situation is in the Netherlands, France and Germany! The two latter boast a long tradition. But also German universities are afflicted by cutbacks and in some places renowned departments of American Studies are being phased out. In the Netherlands on the other hand the evolution after 1981 has encouragingly struck out on a new course. In times of struggle, flourishing departments were established in Utrecht and Leiden. Every year they attract a great deal of interest, also from Flemish students.

 

For the last twenty years the situation has improved slightly, but it has not fundamentally changed.

In most recent schoolbooks for secondary education, one or more precolumbian cultures are barely mentioned, as part of "the Great Discoveries". The amount of university courses that pay attention to the ancient civilizations of America has quadrupled. Nevertheless there is not one university in Belgium that offers a fulfilling course on American studies. When students of art history, history or archaeology want to treat a precolumbian subject for their research or thesis, they will get rather discouraged than encouraged. After all, there are no specialists which are able to appreciate the result of their efforts.

 

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