Lesson 3: anthropological conceptualization of self: the self as embedded in culture

anthropology

concerned with how cultural and biological processes interact to shape human experience

culture, self

complementary concept that are to be understood in relation to one another

James L. Peacock (1986)

stated that anthropology encroaches on the territory of the sciences as well as the humanities, and transcends the conventional boundaries of both while addressing questions to the distant past and the pressing present - perhaps with implications for the future.

anthropology

contributes in understanding of the nature of self through its wide collection of ethnographic investigations which have discussed that cultural variation may affects one's mental states, language, and behavior. (Triandis,1989)

Triandis, 1989

anthropology contributes in understanding of the nature of self through its wide collection of ethnographic investigations which have discussed that cultural variation may affects one's mental states, language, and behavior.

Edward Taylor

define culture as a complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.

(Haviland, Prins, Walrath, & McBride, 2013).

culture

not a behavior itself but the shared understandings that guide behavior and are expressed in behavior (Peacock, 1986).

culture

provides patterns of "ways of life."

social anthropology

used "identity" as "ethnic identity."

egocentric, sociocentric

two concepts of self in different societies:

egocentric

autonomous and distinct individual

sociocentric

contingent on a situation or social setting

identity toolbox

people construct their social identities through _

identity toolbox

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

persons identity

something continuously acquired in life

Arnold Van Gennep

identifies three phased right of passage

Separation, Liminal, Incorporation

Arnold van Gannep identifies three phased rite of passage:

separation

detachment from the former identity to another

liminal

one has left one identity, but has not yet entered the next

Incorporation

the changes are incorporated into a new identity by elaborate rituals and ceremony.

Anthony Wallace and Raymond Fogelson

coined the term identity struggles

Anthony Wallace and Raymond Fogelson

defined the term identity struggles as a characterized interaction in which there is a discrepancy between the identity a person claims to possess and the identity attributed to that person by others.

Golubovic (2011)

suggest that people should overcome many obstacles such as traditionally established habits and parental imposed self image to attain self identification

cognitive anthropologists.

suggest that in order to maintain a relatively stable and coherent self, the members of the multicultural society have no choice but to internalize divergent cultural models and should reject or suppress identifications that may conflict with other self representations.

Katherine Ewing's

Illusion of Wholeness

illusion of wholeness (by Katherine Erwing)

is the continuous reconstitution of self in response to internal and external stimuli

Clifford Geertz

define culture as "a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate perpetuate and develop their knowledge about the attitude towards life."

cultural animals

therefore, humans are considered as

Geertz

propose that culture is necessary to establish order in the world

Geertz

emphasize that "without men, no culture; without culture, no men."