El campo de investigación de la antropología social en México: un ensayo sobre sus nuevas perspectivas

Abstract

The field of research in social and cultural anthropoloqy hae suffered a process of reduction: when we study the prehispanic world we desire to grasp a civilization in all its complexity. ln studies dealing with the contemporaneous world, however, the local community is sometimes postulated as a legitimate and sufficient unit óf anallsis. This article analvzes this process of reduction in general terms and explores the trends of research which assume critical attitudes toward it. Also discussed is the importance of the situation of the Third World in reaching awareness of that limitation. Finally a project is proposed for the characterization of the field of social .anthropology in Mexico, emphasizing the need to a) identify and study all the groups and social segments which are structurally relevant within the society as a whole, and b) to analvze the diverse manners in which such groups are linked among themselves and with the global society in its totality.