Anthropology, modernity, identity: notes on tension between universality and particularity

Abstract

In this article, I take up some of the political meanings of the dilemma between universality and particularity, conceived as a distinct feature of the modern project of a secular, free and equalitarian society. Thus, I discuss some of the configurations of this dilemma present in classical anthropological thought, in the political thought of the nineteenth century and in the contemporary politicalcultual debate about multiculturalism and the right to differences.