PERSPECTIVE:

ANTHROPOLOGY

The Self
The Self & the Person in
Contemporary Anthropology

The Anthropological Self

 ANTHROPOLOGY

•What is anthropology?
•What is its view about the concept
of “self”?
 ANTHROPOLOGY
• The study of people, past and present.
• Focuses on understanding the human
condition in its cultural aspect.
• Concerned with understanding how
humans evolved and how they differ
from one another
 A Unit but Unitary
• Katherine Ewing (1990)
• SELF
•Encompasses the physical
organism, possessing
psychological functioning and
social attributes.
•Implicitly and explicitly existing in
the mind comprised of
psychological, biological and
cultural processes.
EXPLICIT & IMPLICIT
• Neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux (2002)
• Explicit
•Aspect of the self that you are consciously
aware of
• Implicit
•Aspect of the self that is not immediately
available to the consciousness
• Concept is traced to Dr. Sigmund
Freud’s Levels of Consciousness
 JOSEPH LEDOUX
• LeDoux’s view: self was
developed by being framed,
maintained, and affected
biologically, mentally, and
socially.
• The SELF
• not static
• Added to and subtracted from
by genetic maturation,
learning, forgetting, stress,
ageing, and disease.
 SELF AS REPRESENTATION
•Ewing asserted (1989) that
SELF is illusory.
•People construct a series of
self-representations
•Based on selected cultural
concepts of person and selected
chains of personal memories.
 SELF AS REPRESENTATION
• Self-concept is experienced as a whole and
continuous, with own history and memories
that emerge in a specific context to be replaced
by another self-representation when the
context changes.”
• SR => culturally shaped “self” concepts that
one applies to oneself.
•Mental entities that are supposed to represent the
self.
The Self:
Embedded in
Culture
The Anthropological Self
 DEFINED BY CULTURE
• How individuals see themselves
• How they relate to other people
• How they relate to the environment
• If the “self” is a product of society, then how
the self has developed is bound to cultural
differences.
• Self is culturally shaped and infinitely variable.
• “Cultural traditions and social practices
regulate, express, and transform the human
psyche
CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGISTS
•Independent Construct
•Interdependent Constructs
•Construal => interpretation of
the meaning of something;
hence the meaning of “self.”
CONSTRUALS
• INDEPENDENT CONSTRUCT
•Individualistic culture, North America and
Europe.
•Individualistic culture => self => separate
and distinct => internal attributes or traits,
skills and values.
• INTERDEPENDENT CONSTRUCT
•Typical of the collectivist culture => East
Asia (China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau,
Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and
Taiwan)
CULTURE
INFLUENCE ON SELF
CULTURE
•Has an influence on how
you view the following:
•Relationships
•Personality Traits
•Achievement
•Expressing Emotions
 RELATIONSHIPS
•Culture has an influence => enter
into & maintain relationships
•Voluntary or duty-based
•Western society => choice of
marrying a person
•Eastern society => arranged
marriage
 PERSONALITY TRAITS
•How you value traits
•How you feel about relying
on others
 VALUES DARK SIDE LEADERSHIP
Generosity Dishonesty Dominance
Integrity Disloyalty Confidence
Loyalty Unkindness Persuasiveness
Devotion Meanness Ambitiousness
Loving Rudeness Bossy
Kindness Disrespectfulness Resourcefulness
Sincerity Impatience Decisiveness
Self-control Greed Charisma
Peacefulness Abrasiveness Authority
Faithfulness Pessimism Enthusiasm
Patience Cruelty Boldness
Determination Unmercifulness Proactive
Persistance Narcissism
Adventurous Obnoxious
Fairness Malicious
Cooperation Pettyness
Tolerance Quarrelsome
Optimism Caustic
Spirituality Selfishness
Unforgiving
ACHIEVEMENT
•How you define
success and whether
you value certain types
of individual and group
achievements
 EXPRESSING EMOTIONS
•Culture influences => what
will affect you emotionally
•How you express yourself
•Showing your feelings in
public or keeping it private
END
The Anthropological Self
REFERENCE
• Otig, V. S., Gallinero, W. B., Bataga, N. U., Salado, F. B., &
Visande, J. C. (2018). A Holistic Approach in Understanding
the Self A Workbook-Textbook for College Students. Mutya
Publishing House, Inc.