Emotions and Culture
Emotions and Culture: Universality vs. Cultural Construction
Initial Perspectives on Emotions
- Initial View: Emotions are often perceived as universal, biologically wired, and not heavily influenced by culture.
- Personal Experience: However, emotions seem to be the least influenced by culture.
- Evolutionary Perspective: Emotions like fear are considered instinctive and crucial for survival (fight or flight).
- Facial expressions of fear can warn others of danger, aiding survival.
The Question of Universality
- Core Question: Are emotions universal, or are they shaped by culture?
- Significance: Understanding whether emotions are evolutionary or culturally specific is important.
Lecture Objectives
- Understand popular perspectives of emotions as universal.
- Recognize anthropological challenges to this idea.
- Comprehend how emotions are socialized in culturally appropriate ways.
- Differentiate between materialist and constructivist approaches to emotions.
- Articulate why anthropologists insist emotions be studied in context.
Facial Expressions and Universality
- Assumptions:
- Emotions themselves are shared across cultures.
- Expressions of emotions are universal.
- Emojis: Emojis are presumed to be a universal language; however, their meanings are culturally contextual.
- Common View: Facial expressions are universal indicators of internal emotions.
- Challenge: How certain are we that facial expressions for anger, joy, sadness, etc., are the same across cultures?
Scientific Perspectives on Facial Expressions
- Darwin: Argued that facial expressions are a common, universally shared feature essential for evolution.
- Facial expressions indicate fear or danger, preparing others to flee or fight.
- Ubiquitous Documentaries: Showed that recognizable facial expressions occur in expected contexts across the world.
Studies on Emotion Recognition
- Matching Faces to Concepts: Studies ask people to match faces to stories conveying emotions.
- Agreement: There is often significant agreement in recognizing certain facial expressions.
- Visually Impaired Individuals: Studies on visually impaired people suggest similar expressions, implying instinct.
- Non-Human Primates: Comparisons between human and non-human primate facial expressions suggest biological connections.
- Six Core Emotions: Happiness, sadness, fear, surprise, disgust, and anger are linked to core facial expressions.
Critiques of Universality Research
- Context Matters: Emotions only make sense within context.
- Example: A nervous smile may not indicate happiness.
- Eyelash Twitch vs. Wink: The meaning of a gesture (like a wink) can only be understood in context.
- Lack of Context: Research that removes context cannot determine if emotions are innate or culturally shaped.
Emotional Complexity in Cultural Context
- Expression of emotions mean nothing outside of context.
- Gift Giving Example: Emotional states are intricately linked to the cultural centrality of gift-giving.
- Translation Challenges: Difficulty in directly translating emotional concepts into English due to cultural uniqueness.
- Cultural Context: Emotions only make sense within specific cultural contexts.
- Question: What are we actually comparing in different cultural context?
Socialization of Emotions
- Learning Emotions: From birth, babies are exposed to expressions of emotions and learn their associations.
- Babies' Cries: Cries are not always linked to specific emotions initially but become associated through socialization.
- Cartoons and Preschools: Teach children which emotions are appropriate in certain contexts.
Socialization: Indian Parenting Example
- Emotion Regulation: In the 1960's, parents would postpone reprimanding their children when they got angry.
- Re-enactment Through Play: Parents taught children how to respond in those contexts through play.
- Critical View: This illustrates a different way of teaching children what anger means and how to respond to anger.
Constructivist Approaches to Emotions
- Brain's Role: The brain interprets information and prepares the body to act.
- Concept Reliance: The brain relies on past experiences (stored as concepts) to interpret new information efficiently.
- Lisa Feldman Barrett's Theory: Emotions are concepts constructed by the brain, not pre-existing hardwired entities.
- Physical Sensations vs. Emotional Concepts: Physical sensations are distinct from the emotional concepts used to label them.
- Need for Concepts: Concepts are essential to recognize emotions as things in and of themselves.
- Explicit Formulation: We cannot formulate emotions explicitly if our brains have not been taught certain sensations in context.
Implications of Barrett's Theory
- Brain Rewiring: We can learn to rewire our brains to respond differently in certain situations.
- Neurodivergence: Emphasizes constructed concepts in brains of patients and claims that this is not dysfunction.
Cultural Considerations and Anthropological Perspectives
- Culture Complicates Everything: Even with possible hardwired aspects, culture shapes emotional expression.
- Defining Emotions: It is important to clarify whether we are discussing serotonin levels or the role of emotions within cultural context.
- Meaning within Context: Human emotions gain meaning within specific cultural contexts.
Ronald Rosaldo and the Ilongot Headhunters: A Case Study
- Approach: Immersing in the Ilongot culture to understand their perspective.
- Challenge: Initially, all concepts seemed similar to English except for "liget".
- First Understanding: Energetic feeling, tied to being productive and vital.
- Legget Revelation: The mood in the community changed upon hearing the voice of someone who had died.
- Connection to headhunting: Ligget = a desire to throw and cut a head.
- Legget Embodiment: The anthropologist was only able to understand this concept once his wife had died and he was in great pain emotionally.
- Rosalvo's Conclusion: Concepts allow you to perceive and fully experience the sensations of emotions.