ORIGINS OF ENGLISH INDIVIDUALISM BY ALAN MACFARLANE: THEORETICAL LESSONS OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND THE CRAFT OF HISTORY

Abstract

Since the time of Herodotus and Thucydides, historians have used different explanatory models. In the twentieth century, especially in its second half, rich in "cognitive twists", many attempts were made to radically transform the practice of historiography, to bring it out of the drift between the "poles" of two basic types of explanation - through the motives of human activity, or through natural factors and social structures that determine it. However, specialization within historical science, which requires restricting the subject ield of speciic research on one side or another of the historical process, constantly creates the ground for transferring the center of gravity in explaining history onto it. The article discusses one of the most advanced versions of the historical-anthropological approach and the contro- versy that unfolded around its practical implementation in a famous book "The Origins of English Individualism" of the British historian and anthropologist Alan Macfarlane that was published in 1978 and provoked a lot of critical feedback. The author of this article focuses on the theoretical, methodological and logical foundations of the study conducted by A. Macfarlane on an interdisciplinary basis, and above all, the models of comparative analysis that made it possible to critically revise the traditional interpretation of the "transition" of England from a collectivist agrarian society to an individualistic modern society.