O poznawalności święta
On the Cognizability of a Festivity

Summary/Abstract: The author refers to anthropological classics pertaining to festivity, using this opportunity for outlining the foundations of his own conception. First, he draws attention to questions associated with the cognizability of a festivity. Anthropologists are always in the situation of a researcher and not a person experiencing the festivity. For this reason they cannot present hypotheses on what could be concealed behind the semi-transparent walls of the anthropological machine (la macchina antropologica). The machine in question works in accordance with a rhythm – characteristic for it – of revealing and concealing daily life in cognitive categories (and not epiphanic experience). The contemporary anthropologist does not have at his disposal the skill of revealing himself in a festive state: access to his “I” is, therefore, hindered. Lacking epiphanic experiences and devoid of visions, which actually would have been revelations, he can deal only with machines, active cognitive models that suggest that their centre contains epiphanic visions whose core is inaccessible to cognition.

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