Between the imaginary and the real. Theoretical and reflexivity for an anthropology of the imaginary

Authors

Abstract

This article is a theoretical and epistemological critical approach to the arguments supporting the imaginary as a fundamental dimension of social life and, consequently, of the studies of the social. The first part tries to establish a sociological and anthropological definition of the imaginary through the symbolic experience, determined by the social behaviour. Secondly, the imaginary is understood as an archetypal morpho-semantic system, constituting a model that changes culturally. Subsequently, it establishes a dimension for a new display of the anthropological object, defined between the social fact (unquestioned) and the symbolic experience, giving emphasis to meanings and social representations. Finally, it addresses the homo simbolicus as the basis of subjectivity and objectivity, where their interpretations and cognoscence stands as the foundation of all social praxis. It concludes with a reflection on the scientific possibilities of a social anthropology of the imaginary as a necesity for research in a meta-empirical society.

Keywords:

social imaginary, social anthropology, symbolism, social representation, archetypes