Cultural models in Anthropology

Anthropological models aim to solve the same fundamental problem about the relationships existing between reality, representation and imaginary. It is a characteristic of these models to be always the result of the experience of two continuously present partners: the native and the ethnographer. This creation of different models by natives and ethnographers is the anthropologists' key point, as it is clearly evidenced by the examples which are mentioned here. The aim of explanatory schemata is not limited to render clearer what we observe, but also to construct mental objects so that we may analyse them by comparing the different ensuing representation. So the anthropologist can also construct a sensory model of a society on the basis of the cultural body, as the senses are present in whatever aspect of knowledge.