The status of explanation in debate of scientific status of sociocultural anthropology

Osnovni cilj disertacije jeste da – kroz kombinovanu prizmu istorije antropoloških teorija i metoda, antropologije nauke, antropologije antropologije, opšte metodologije nauka i filozofije nauke – osvetli, problematizuje i preispita status objašnjenja u sociokulturnoj antropologiji, teţeći da osvetli kako osnove za privilegovanje i prihvatanje određenog tipa objašnjenja kao jemca naučnosti antropologije tako i osnove za diskvalifikovanje i odbacivanje određenog tipa objašnjenja, bilo zbog eksplanatornog neuspeha, s jedne strane, ili zbog nelegitimnosti ili nekog drugog neepistemičkog razloga, s druge. Osnovni predmet disertacije je rasprava o naučnom statusu sociokulturne antropologije, koja se u radu posmatra kroz prizmu spora o statusu objašnjenja u antropologiji, kao kontinuirani i nikad formalno neokončani spor oko metoda koji antropologija nasleđuje iz vremena akademske institucionalizacije društveno-humanističkih nauka. Osnovna hipoteza istraţivanja jeste da postoji snaţna korelacija između teorijskih i metodoloških struktura, u tolikoj meri da se one mogu smatrati neodvojivim, a da je objašnjenje, odnosno eksplanatorni potencijal, tačka konvergencije koja se moţe iskoristiti za proveru toga da li je razdvajanje teorijskih i metodoloških struktura uopšte i moguće.The main objective of the dissertation is to shed light on, problematize and interrogate the status of explanation in socio-cultural anthropology in the combined light of the history of anthropological theories and methods, the anthropology of science, the anthropology of anthropology, the general methodology of science and the philosophy of science. It seeks to elucidate the basis for privileging and accepting a certain type of explanation as a guarantee of the scientific quality of the discipline, as well as the basis for disqualifying and rejecting a certain type of explanation, be it on the grounds of its explanatory failure on the one hand, or lack of legitimacy or some other non-epistemic reason on the other. The main subject of the dissertation is the debate over the status of socio-cultural anthropology as a scientific discipline, which is looked at from the perspective of the controversy over the status of explanation in anthropology as a continual and never formally settled controversy over the method, which anthropology has inherited from the period of academic institutionalization of social sciences and humanities. The main hypothesis of the dissertation is that there is a strong correlation between theoretical and methodological structures, to the point that they may be seen as inseparable, and that explanation, i.e. explanatory potential, is the point of convergence which may be used to test if separation of theoretical and methodological structures is possible at all