Deciphering the Dynamic Tapestry of Cultures
How Vico’s Visionary Insight Fuels 21st-century Anthropology’s Dissection of Social Constructs
Embracing an empathetic approach that mirrors the ‘emic’ perspective in anthropology — immersing oneself into a culture to decipher its logic — can illuminate our understanding of today’s world.
The 18th-century Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico, progenitor of the concept “verum ipsum factum,” or “True is What Has Been Made as Such,” encourages us to dig deeper in the anthropological examination of social constructs in the 21st century.
Things like gender, race, and class are understood as human creations rather than biological inevitabilities.
The LGBTQ+ movement’s deconstruction of gender norms, racial equality movements, and class-based social policies exemplify these social constructs.
Vico’s theories remain a philosophical bedrock for modern cultural anthropology, promoting the view of cultures as dynamic, malleable, and diverse knowledge systems. His cyclical model of societal progression provides a roadmap for assessing societal shifts, underlining the concept that social constructs are transient and evolutionary in nature.
