Anthropological Conceptualization of Self

Anthropology

Concerned with how cultural and biological processes interact to shape human experience. It processes a holistic approach and an integrated approach in examining human nature.

Culture

how people make sense of their experiences and behave according to socially shared ideas, values, and perceptions.

• knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, and custom

Material Culture

a type of culture that includes all the concrete and visible parts of culture.

Non-materialistic Culture

a type of culture that refers to the nonmaterial concepts that people have about the culture.

Ethnic Identity

points out the sameness of the self to others, that is, to a consciousness of sharing certain characteristics within a group.

Identity

is understood as a disposition of basic personality features acquired mostly during childhood and, once integrated, more or less fixed. (Sokefield, 1999)

Egocentric

this concept of the self is seen as an autonomous and distinct individual. We are capable of acting independently from others.

Sociocentric

this concept of the self is contingent on a situation or social setting. The self is context-dependent.

Identity Toolbox

refers to the features of a person's identity that he or she chooses to emphasize in constructing a social self.

Personal Naming

a universal practice with numerous cross-cultural variations that establishes a child's birthright and social identity.

Arnold Van Gennep

He said there are three-phase rite of passage

Separation

this passage is where people detach from their former identity to another

Liminality

this passage is where a person transitions from one identity to another.

Incorporation

this passage is where the change in one's status is officially incorporated

Indentity Struggles

There is a discrepancy between the identity a person claims to possess and the identity attributed to that person by others.

• self-identification vs. inherited cultural identification

Identity Crisis

• happens when universal values and moral principles of an individual or group become relatively determined by politics and ideology, among other external factors.

• occurs when our identity becomes unstable and insecure