From the anthropology of Europe to the anthropology of the European Union and back

Abstract

From its origin in the nineteenth century, through the entire twentieth, ethnology was present in most continental European countries as the national sci-ence of ethnological research on the given population and territory, past and present. Countries that held colonies, however, grounded their anthropological studies en-tirely differently, namely, in the research of ‘primitive societies’. A process of merg-ing Anglo-American anthropology and European ethnology began after the Second World War through theoretical innovations, such as Claude Levi-Strauss’ structural-ism, which integrated anthropology as a scientific discipline. This was also the be-ginning of the integration of Europe, that is, the creation of the European Economic Community. Science has traditionally regarded Europe as a ‘mental representation’ or the product of a complex political-ideological or cultural conceptualization. In anthropology as elsewhere, Europe was chiefly seen either through a regional com-parative approach or through various kinds of analysis of interior or transcontinental spheres of political, economic, demographic, and cultural influences. This paper will take a closer look on the recent studies of Europe, and more specifically, of European Union, through the lens of anthropology.