Abstract

THE TRANSCENDENTAL AND THE HISTORICAL. ON THE ROLE OF THE CONCEPT OF PRIMITIVE IN ERNESTO DE MARTINO’S PHILOSOPHICAL ANTHROPOLOGY “Primitive” has been a core concept of cultural anthropology for a long time. Its interpretations were, however, manifold. On this background, this paper aims at showing the particular Ernesto de Martino’s non-historical (that is, transcendental) interpretation of this concept. Through an analysis of the role played by the idea of “primitive” in de Martino’s philosophical anthropology an innovative theory on the relation between the transcendental and the historical can, in fact, be found.