This paper is concerned with human societies before and beyond the transcendental revolution, where, to paraphrase a golden line of Giambattista Vico: “in the early stages of humanity, what men did, the gods were doing”. In this discussion are presented abbreviated characterizations of some main features of the enchanted universe and its economic and political aspects. These are presented merely in the way of a general form. In the same vein, the brief ethnographic notices that here accompany the main theses are meant to be paradigmatic: they stand for an array of analogous reports from immanentist regimes the world around. This paper should not be taken as an exercise in cultural comparison, however; it is an undisciplined attempt at generalization.
Menu
