Del enfoque emic a los procedimientos críticos de intrerpretación. Retrospectiva y anticipaciones

Abstract

The aim of this article is to provide a basis for the critique of a certain way of understanding anthropological knowledge which was characterized by the contraposition between emic and etic elements as a particular case of contraposition between hermeneutical and scientific insights. If the structural conception of theories is applied to Anthropology and if we do accept the possibility of correcting the interpretation of meanings, all propositions contained in ethnographies, both those concerning data as those concerning the relationships established among them, have the same scientific character, and share the cautions which we may apply to the term. Thus, dichotomies not only would be inadequate, but also meaningless. Finally, I sketch the consequences of such a methodological proposal upon the way of thinking about cross-cultural comparison.