MAJOLA B.

CANDA
BSCE- 3C
REFLECTION

Anthropology is the study of what distinguishes us as human beings. This topic has brought me a lot of
understanding and ideas. As a student and as an individual, I realized that there are still a lot of things that
I did not know, and a lot of things that I should have known. The topic about the “Anthropology of the
self”, focuses on the cultural aspect of the self. Practices among different societies conceptualize what the
self is and how it relates to culture. It shows what field of anthropology that can contribute to understand
the self.

I have learned that origins of Self explores the role that selfhood plays in defining human society, and
each human individual in that society. It considers the genetic and cultural origins of self, the role that self
plays in socialization and language, and the types of self we generate in our individual journeys to and
through adulthood.

What I learned about the topic of “Anthropology of the self” is that Anthropology is a much broader idea
in terms of analyzing and understanding human interactions and all potential questions concerning them.
Anthropology is concerned with discovering, studying, interpreting, and inferring historical and
contemporary cultural features in order to comprehend all aspects of human beings.

Thus, the most important thing that this topic trying to tell us that whoever you are, no matter where you
come from, whatever your experiences in life, it molds you of what you are today.

ASSIGNMENT

1.) What are self and person in contemporary anthropology?

“person” or personhood is a bundle of roles, norms of behavior, expectations,

responsibilities, obligations that situate a human being in social life. This bundle of
roles, rules, responsibilities, obligations, etc, are “defined” by specific cultural criteria
and principles that are primarily related to gender, sexuality, age, class, birth order,
and other kinship identities, as well as other identifications such as class and division
of labor. Thus a person is the way a human fulfills, enacts, negotiates, or struggles
with the diverse ways in which they are also a person defined by social, legal, moral,
economic, and political institutions.
 “self” is a dynamic process by which a human experiences and identifies their
specificity as a human in tension with being a person. The self is an identification that
negotiates the tension/opposition between being a person and being unique human.
This uniqueness is formulated differently in different cultures— it could be in terms
of “self” as consciousness, as soul, as mind (opposed to body), as a unity of soul-
spirit-body, as a unity between oneself and another, as synonymous with
personhood, as opposite of the ways they are a person; and, so on….

2.) How does anthropology help you to understand more of yourself?

Anthropology opens my mind and brings so much ideas and understanding. It teaches me to be who I am,
that I belong to this society. It helps me to connect to everyone and understand that we have differences.