Crisis and alterity in cultural configurations

Abstract

This article explores possible meanings and uses of the term crisis in the anthropologi cal analysis and other studies that seek to understand cultural dynamics. We propose a restricted use of the term and criticize the abuse of the notion of crisis. A crisis could only happen in a context and to consider the cultural crises we propose an understanding of “context” as a frame and configuration. A cultural crisis destabilizes, to some degree, tensions between homogeneity and heterogeneity relatively instituted in any social space. At the same time, a crisis may threaten the very language of a community.