Anthropology and Historicity

Bibliographic Data

ID4496452
AuthorsJean-Loup Amselle, Jean‐loup Amselle (corresponding author)
Year1993
Volume32
Issue4
Pages12
Publication date1993-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory and Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-2656 • E-ISSN: 1468-2303
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2505630
OpenAlexW2317309892
LanguageEN
Citations received6

This article tries to assess the component of French anthropology influenced by the Marxist paradigm, while also showing the links of Marxism to functionalism. With the collapse of the Marxist problematic one must establish a new anthropology that gives greater attention to history in primitive societies. It is also necessary to rethink some of the central problems confronting anthropology: in particular, to reevaluate the links between anthropology and development; to locate constructivism in the discipline; to measure the extent of phenomena of reappropriation in exotic societies; and to examine the aptness of binary oppositions such as state versus stateless societies, and individual versus community. By thus questioning some of the central images of anthropology, one is led to pose the problem of primordial syncretism, that is, the diffusion of institutions spreading from a common cultural ground or background, as well as the problem of the links between universalism and culturalism. At the end of this itinerary, and by taking the example of the pair people of power versus people of the earth, it is argued that the prevalence of the phenomena of reappropriation in exotic societies is explained by the universality of certain values

Epistemology · Historical anthropology · Historicity (philosophy) · Political science · Politics · Sociology · African Studies and Ethnography · Agriculture and Rural Development Research · Anthropology · French Urban and Social Studies · History · Philosophy

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