The Anthropological Self Flashcards
Holds a holistic view of
human nature.
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
contributed indirectly to
understanding the nature
of the Self.
Sampling methods
Sentence completion
interviews
Ethnographic
investigations
That complex whole which
includes knowledge, belief,
art, morals, law, customs –
acquired by man as a
member of society.
Provides patterns of ‘ways
of life’.
Culture
Self is viewed as an
autonomous and distinct
individual.
Egocentric
Self is viewed as contingent
on a situation or social
setting.
It is context dependent.
Sociocentric
A universal practice
Establishes a child’s birthright and social identity.
A device to individualize a person.
Enables legitimate membership of a group.
Intimate markers of the person.
Represents his/her cultural self.
No self if the individual is without a name.
Personal Naming
Usually involves ritual activities to
prepare individuals for new roles from
one stage of life to another.
Birth, puberty, marriage, having
children, death
Rites of Passage (Arnold van
Gennep)
Illusion of Wholeness
Exhibits how individual selves
continuously reconstitute
themselves into new selves in
response to internal and external
stimuli.
Katherine
Ewing
Favored a symbolic interpretative
model of culture.
Clifford Geertz
is a system of inherited
conceptions expressed in symbolic
forms by means of which people
communicate, perpetuate, and
develop their knowledge about and
attitudes toward life.
Culture
is a set of control
mechanisms
Man is very dependent on
culture to order his/her
behavior.
Culture
