Interconnections between theory, history and imagination in anthropology

The article examines the interconnections between theory, history and imagination in anthropology. Anthropology as academic discipline was established on the scholars endeavors to raise the history above simple historiography descriptions to the level of theoretical knowledge and nomotetic science, based on the principles of rationality. Therefore, in a way, the contribution of imaginative thinking to the emergence of anthropology and its influence on the formative processes of multi-cultural exchange has been underestimated. An revised analysis of the importance of imagination in these processes makes possible revision of the history of anthropology asking for new anthropological "literacy" focused on understanding the formative aspects of imagination in constitution of knowledge.