Nach der Kultur. Anthropologische Potentiale für eine rekursive Geschichtsschreibung

Abstract

The article starts from the observation that while the field of Historical Anthropology as represented in the journal „Historische Anthropologie“ has defined itself predominantly in terms of its kulturwissenschaftlicher approach, the reception of social and cultural anthropology has somewhat thinned out. Harking back to the founding moment of the journal, the author makes a case for recuperating the critical impulse that animated the project when it assembled then non-mainstream approaches – like microhistory, Alltagsgeschichte, or history from below – under the common denominator of „Historical Anthropology“, while raising the question of whether the focus on „culture“ still provides the critical leverage it exerted at the time. She then reviews recent anthropological debates on the so-called „ontological turn“ that unearthed the limitations of epistemological or representational approaches to alterity. In particular, the author draws attention to a sample of approaches developed in anthropology – especially by Philippe Descola, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and Marilyn Strathern –, which provide heuristic tools that might support a renewal of the initial impulse towards radical historicization in Historical Anthropology.