The anthropological insight of E.P. Thompson

Abstract

Edward Palmer Thompson’s contribution to social history and political theory is as wide as are the many intellectual trends that he combatted, always on the basis of a thorough research work. The purpose of this text is to rescue his anthropological gaze, characterized above all by the priority given to the historical subjects’ experience, in the ways that they lived it and expressed it. Thompson shares with Dilthey and with interpretive anthropology, as well as with the anthropology of experience, a conceptualisation of this as the flux of what is lived and which acquires meaning by its interpretation according to shared cultural frames. That is how Thompson rescues popular traditions that refer to notions of justice, but also collective memories from which the changing lives of all those groups that, in the beginnings of industrialisation constituted a new subject -the working-class- were interpreted. Experience implies the inclusion of desires and feelings, not only thoughts. It is not possible to conceive the formation of the working-class “interest” without previously understanding the grievance felt that placed it in opposition to other classes. Finally, Thompson’s anthropological gaze puts the accent on the idea of process. His thick descriptions irritated sociologists like Bendix. His narrative form, however, helps us to understand the complexity of any historical event, at the same time that it sheds light on theoretical problems as difficult as the constitution of a new collective subject. He probably managed to accomplish this task because, beyond academic digressions, he was moved by a deep passion and respect towards the protagonists of his research work.