MORALS AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE PRODUCTION OF SOCIAL LIFE. A HETERODOX READING OF ÉMILE DURKHEIM'S WRITINGS

Abstract

This article outlines an approach to the anthropological analysis of moral as an integral part of the production of social life by concrete, socially situated individuals. I attempt a reading of Émile Durkheim's writings on moral that differs from the current orthodoxy commonly found in anthropological studies. I search guidelines to define the domain of morality, to analyse its relationships with human action, and to integrate it with human cognition. I illustrate my point of view with an ethnographic account of the moral dimension of the conflicts that occurred in a fishing cooperative on the shore of the Paraná river in Argentina.

Keywords Morals; Social Anthropology; Anthropological theory; Ethnography; Cooperative movement