Social Identity, Personality, and Gender Study Guide

Enculturation and the Development of Self-Awareness * Human children are biologically ill-equipped to survive without culture, which is essential for their development and continued existence. * Case studies of “feral” children from around the world demonstrate that children raised without regular human cultural contact do not have happy endings. * Enculturation begins with the development of self-awareness, defined as the ability to identify oneself as an individual, reflect on oneself, and evaluate oneself. * Self-awareness is not an immediate development. In modern industrial and postindustrial societies, children do not clearly distinguish between self and nonself until they are about $2$ years old, which lags behind the rate of development seen in other cultures. * The development of self-awareness occurs in concert with neuromotor development. This process proceeds at a slower rate in infants from industrial societies compared to infants in many small-scale farming or foraging communities. * While the exact cause of these differing developmental rates is not fully understood, the amount of human contact and stimulation received by infants appears to play a significant role. * In most societies globally, infants typically sleep with their parents or at least their mothers and are carried for the majority of the time. * Infantile distress, such as crying or fussing, is responded to quickly, often by offering the breast for nursing. * A specific comparison of close human contact shows that a Ju/’hoansi child is in close contact with their mother $70^{th}$ of the time, whereas an American child is in close contact with their mother only $20^{th}$ of the time. # Social Identity and Personal Naming * Personal names are universal and fundamental devices for self-definition across all cultures. * A name establishes both a child's birthright and their social identity within the community. * Naming timing varies: some cultures wait until birth or shortly after to name a child, while others, such as those in the United States, typically select a name before the child is born. * Naming ceremonies are specialized events or rituals that formally mark the naming of a new member of society. * Cultural names may be changed after birth depending on various circumstances. * Historical and political pressures, such as when an ethnic group or nation falls under the control of a more powerful neighboring group, may lead to forced assimilation. This can result in members being forced to abandon cultural identity and traditional naming practices. * Individuals may adopt names more acceptable to mainstream society to avoid racial discrimination or ethnic stigmas. * An example of naming rituals is found among the Tuareg of Niger, where the naming ceremony occurs on the $8^{th}$ day of a child's life. People from neighboring villages travel to celebrate the naming and meet the new clan member. This ceremony may also include the sacrifice of an animal. # The Self and the Behavioral Environment * There are four primary orientations that an individual must learn during maturation to navigate their culture and natural environment: * Object Orientation: This involves learning about all objects in the world. Cultures guide individuals to focus on specific objects while ignoring or grouping together those deemed unimportant. * Spatial Orientation: This involves the ability to remember and recall how to travel from one location to another, which incorporates placing oneself within a specific geographical context. * Temporal Orientation: This provides a sense of place within time and is a key component of the behavioral environment. * Normative Orientation: This involves understanding moral values, ideals, and principles, all of which are relative to the specific culture an individual inhabits. # Culture and Personality * During enculturation, individuals are introduced to the society's natural and man-made environment along with collective ideas regarding the self and others. * Personality is defined as the distinctive way a person thinks, feels, and behaves. * A person’s personality is a product of enculturation as experienced by the individual, combined with their unique genetic makeup. It is essentially a generalization about an individual's internalized mental map over time. # Personality Development and Gender * Personality development is influenced not just by what is learned, but by how it is learned. * In traditional Western society, a dichotomy exists in gender expectations: men are expected to be tough, aggressive, assertive, and self-reliant, while women are expected to be gentle, pliable, and caring. * Anthropologist Margaret Mead conducted studies demonstrating that biology is not destiny in matters of gender; gender roles and traits vary significantly across cultures. # Child-Rearing Patterns: Dependence and Independence Training * Dependence Training: This promotes child-rearing practices that foster compliance in performing assigned tasks and dependence on the domestic group. It prioritizes the group over self-reliance. This is common in non-industrial societies where co-habitation with extended families is a necessity, and all family members work actively to support one another. * Independence Training: These practices foster independence, self-reliance, and personal achievement. This is common in industrial and postindustrial societies where such traits are considered necessary for success or survival. Infants in these societies typically spend less time with their parents compared to infants in non-industrial societies. # Group Personality, National Character, and Core Values * It is possible to characterize a "group personality" without relying on stereotypes, particularly in traditional societies. * As societies grow larger and more complex, they become more diverse, leading to more broad characterizations of cultural personality. * Modal Personality: This is a statistical concept referring to the character traits that occur with the highest frequency within a social group. It represents the most common traits of a culture and allows for the investigation of how societies organize diversity and how that diversity relates to cultural change. * National Character Studies: Popular in the $1930$s and $1940$s, these studies focused on the modal characteristics of modern nations. They were eventually criticized for being flawed due to generalizations based on limited data, small informant samples, and questionable assumptions about developmental psychology. However, they helped shift anthropological focus toward modern cultures. * Core Values: This is an alternative approach to studying groups that recognizes that not all personalities conform to cultural ideals. It focuses on the specific values promoted and prioritized by a particular culture. # Alternative Gender Models and Social Identity * While humans have two primary biological sexes (male and female), many societies recognize more than two genders (third genders) and have developed specific roles for individuals who do not fit the binary. * Intersexual: A person born with reproductive organs, genitalia, and/or sex chromosomes that are not exclusively male or female. * Transgender: Individuals who cross over or occupy an intermediate position within the binary male-female gender construction. * Eunuchs: Historically, the practice of castration (damaging, cutting, or crushing testicles) has occurred worldwide. Eunuchs often rose to high-status positions, such as priests or administrators in the Persian, Byzantine, and Chinese empires. * Hijras: Found in India, this represents the largest population of eunuchs in the world today. Hijras are performers who may participate in important rites of passage, such as marriages or births. # Mental Disorders Across Time and Cultures * Despite cultural variations, "abnormal" activities, thoughts, or actions can occur in any culture, though each culture identifies and classifies these disorders differently. * Culture-Bound Syndrome (also known as ethnic psychosis): Mental disorders that are specific to particular ethnic groups or cultures. # Questions & Discussion * How do we choose a name for our children? (Consider the rituals and motivations behind naming in modern contexts). * Do we recognize a third gender in the United States? Why or why not? * Dependence vs. Independence training: Which practice best describes the child-rearing style in the United States?