Ponce proposes to develop an intellectual history of Posnansky, whom many view as the father of Bolivian archaeology, which he hopes will contribute to the establishment of context for the development of local prehistory. However, for the most part, the volume serves more as a foil for Ponce to refer to his own work and publications, as they update, contradict, and improve on the earlier archaeological reconstructions of Posnansky.

Arthur Posnansky (1873-1946) was an important contributor to Bolivian culture history, being not only a pioneer in Bolivian archaeology, but also in Bolivian cinematography, in the development of the national park system, and in the introduction of the first automobile into Bolivia. He was trained as a naval engineer in his native Vienna, a skill which he quickly parlayed into a fortune in Bolivia in the rubber boom, in terms of transporting the latex by river transport. With the loss of Arce to Brazil in 1903, he shifted his focus to other fields. He brought the first gasoline-powered motorboat to Lake Titicaca that year, and while visiting the excavations of the French Crequi-Montfort and Senechal de La Grange Mission, under the direction of George Courty, during trips to the lake, he became very intrigued with the site of Tiwanaku and its place in Bolivian prehistory. Posnansky shortly thereafter began his extensive collection of material artifacts from Tiwanaku, constructing the -"Palacio Tihuanacu" in 1917-1918 to house the stela, ceramics and other materials which he collected. This structure and its collections were subsequently sold to the state, becoming the current Museo Nacional de Arqueologia.