Abstract
This dissertation, mainly based on Cris Shore and Marc Abélès' research, explores the anthropological approaches to the study of the European Union. This is seen by anthropologists as a cultural construct and its institutions as a new place where politics manifests itself in a globalization era in which the relationship between power, politics and territory is losing centrality. The anthropological method of the fieldwork is used as a starting point to set a range of general theoretical conclusion about the nature of the European project, its institutions and policies.
The dissertation also focuses on the vision of European identity and culture that takes form inside the European Commission, and how the latter try to spread this conception of Europe through ritual and symbolic initiatives and a systematic intervention in the cultural sector to gain legitimacy for the European project. Particular attention is paid to the construction of the European citizenship seen as an identity device, essential to draw the boundaries of a shared identity that can transcend the national one.
The ideology and the cultural organization of the European Commission are then examined together with the cognitive mechanisms operating among the European civil service in order to create the new European man advocated by the founding fathers and the integrationist
theorists. Finally, conclusions are drawn on how important the anthropological contribution is to the understanding of this new and unique post-modern polity.
