The Ethnological Counter-Current in Sociology

abstract: As it enters the 21st century, sociology seemingly faces an exhaustion of theoretical and substantive approaches to deal with the pressing matter of cross-cultural research. This article suggests that one possible route out of the impasse lies in the rediscovery of an ethnological counter-current within sociology, a way of thinking that juxtaposes modern Western societies to other sociocultural contexts in order to better understand the full range of mul-tiple modernities. In the first instance, it is contended that a comparative, intercultural tendency has played a determi-nant, albeit relatively neglected, part in the development of social research in the modern West; this tendency, which is identified as the ‘ethnological imagination’, has enriched and can continue to enrich sociological thinking. Second, the approach adopted by ethnologically informed sociologists is developed with the help of the hermeneutical tradition, in order to establish some of the foundations of an intercultural sociology. keywords: culture F ethnology F hermeneutics F modernity F sociology Ethnology is not a specialty defined by a particular object, ‘primitive ’ societies; it is a way of thinking, one which imposes itself when the object is ‘other’, and demands that we transform ourselves. Thus we become the ethnologists of our own society if we distance ourselves from it. (Merleau-Ponty, 1960: 150) One may investigate how particular human societies differ from one another. One may also investigate how all human societies resemble one another. Strictly speaking, these two research preoccupations are inseparable. Anyone seeking a clear picture of the similarities in all societies – the universal feature