For an anthropology of emotions

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the social nature of emotions and the importance of cultural contexts in incarnations and ways to experience and feel emotionally. First we discuss the naturalistic perspective of the study of emotions. As we shall see, feelings and emotions are not substances transferable of an individual or group to group, and not are physiological processes only. They are relations, and therefore, are the product of a social and cultural construction, and expressed as a set of signs that man always has the ability to deploy, even if do not feel. The emotion is both interpretation, expression, meaning, relationship, an exchange regulation, is modified according to the audience, context, differs in its intensity, and even in its manifestations, according to the uniqueness of each person . As argued, the individual adds his note in a collective pattern can be recognized by peers (according to his personal history, psychology, social status, gender, age, etc.). Affectivity is the impact of a personal value faces a context as it is experienced by the individual.