Castro D. y Miranda O. 2006. Ciencias Sociales y Literatura Latinoamericana: Del rigor científico que aprendimos a una teoría de las emociones. Cinta moebio 25: 77-88

PDF | HTML

Social Science and Latin America Literature: From the rigorous thought that we learned to a theory of emotions

Daniel Castro Aniyar. Doctor en Antropología Social (Francia). Académico Universidad del Zulia. Venezuela.
Oleski Miranda. (oleskimiranda@yahoo.com). Sociólogo (Universidad del Zulia. Venezuela). Magíster en Antropología y Desarrollo (Universidad de Chile).

Abstract

Latin American rigorous thought has consisted of a reconstruction of western rigorous thought. This inflexion is not only limited to literary practice, it also, and most importantly, reaches all sciences, and here visibly touches the social sciences. As such, the relation between literature and the social sciences in Latin America reveals that the scientific knowledge learned, due to the separation of emotions and common culture, has not achieved a thinking of who we are, nor the planning, diagnosis or prognosis about our relationships. As a result, three premises are being proposed: a) the universal is not the opposite of the local, instead it is the opposite of the situational. Therefore, ethnographic method plays a fundamental role in the redefining of scientific rigor for Latin America. b) Emotions are not the result of objectively comparable operations, instead they are a reality in and of themselves. From this it can be taken that we should not only think of the knowledge of emotion, but instead understand emotion as an epistemological dimension permitting the involvement of scientific thought with the common culture of the people and the individuals that give meaning. c) In virtue of this new relation between culture and science, the role of the scientific will be to redefine thought, translated so much in the eidos and the ethos, and serve as a communal cup between communities, institutions, social organizations, individuals, and families, thus contributing to a more transparent and realistic scenario of that which we are and of that which we aspire to be as a people.

Key words: literacy, emotions, ethnography, common culture, identity, rigorous thought.