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On the eve of the 21st century, it is not possible to continue understanding the concept of "modernity" as a single monolithic development model clearly following Western patterns. Acknowledging extended cultural diversity and plurality of thought in the modern world makes us think of not only one but multiple 'modernities', each one of them being a response to different yet specific traditions and cultures. This article explores the intellectual and academic production in the three Americas throughout their history. By examining anthropological and other intellectual lines of thought, two radically different concepts of modernity and development are compared: one in Latin America, which still today can be called theocentric, and another in North America, that influenced by European models, is anthropocentric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]