Abstract

VARGAS CETINA, Gabriela. Time and Power: The Anthropology of Time. Nueva antropol [online]. 2007, vol.20, n.67, pp.41-64. ISSN 0185-0636.

We assume that time is an intrinsic dimension to life and that everyone experiences it the same way. However, different notions of time, often contradicting ours, exist in human societies. This article describes how anthropology has approached time-related notions, reviewing some of the main theoretical positions on the subject and pointing at the power relations implied in the authorial view characterizing the ethnography of time. My main interest is to show that the anthropology of time cannot be conceived outside power relations. In recent decades the anthropology of time has focused on the rhetorical uses of temporal notions and their place in power relations. In the last section I sketch emerging themes in anthropological approaches to time, as they imply our new forms of multiconnectivity and the time-space compression discussed in contemporary theories in sociology and philosophy.

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