Abstract

The perception of time as a social, collective construction is the problem in this study: the diversity of ways in which societies and human groups perceive time is associated with their identity, communication and interaction. With a phenomenological perspective, is elaborated a hypothesis that proposes the so-called cognitive devices, as historical determinants in the perception, uses and treatment of time. Evidence of support is sought in the ethnographic and historical literature first, and then in field observations in rural localities in Chile, and especially in the Patagonia area. The results highlight, first, that the perceived properties are determined by the cognitive device in use; second: the mathematical, continuous, measurable conception, typical of modernity, appears as a particular, urban cultural elaboration; but that coexists with pre-mathematical or analogical forms of ordering. And, third: globalization and the instantaneity of the Internet increase the probability of contacts, with groups and social contexts that have different temporalities, generally invisible, and that diversity configures networks and codes that are not always easy to detect, aspect on which some keys are proposed to identify.