Anthropological

Perspective
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
 Learning Outcome
The Self from the Anthropological Perspective

• Anthropology:
- Overview of the discipline
- The self and person in
contemporary anthropology:
Becoming Human
- The self embedded in culture
 Anthropology
 Exploration of human
diversity through time and
space(Kottak 2008)

It deals particularly with

culture that varies from one
place to another, from one
group of people to another,
and from the past to the
present.
 Anthropology is the study of human
diversity through time and space
(Kottak 2008). It deals particularly with
culture that varies from one place to
another, from one group of people to
another, and from the past to the
present.
…to understand patterns of human
behavior
 Rare for anthropologists to study
the individual since they focus
on collective society.
 Discovery of culture.
 Before, dominance of the
uniformitarian view which states
that human is constant and
unmodified by its social and
natural environment, regardless
of time, space and
circumstances.
 Culture is characterized with language,
tradition, norms, folkways, religion,
worldviews and practices.
 It is composed of material and non-
material, it is symbolic and interpretative, it
can be learned and shared, it changes and
diminishes, and it is adaptive and
maladaptive.
 Lastly, culture is all encompassing.
Becoming Human: Self,
Personality, and Identity
• How we
become
human?
• What sets us
apart from
other
animals?
 Child-rearing is
quite crucial in
the process of
enculturation
The process of
enculturation, the
transmission of culture
from one generation to
the next, started soon
after birth. Generally,
almost in all societies,
the primary agent for
enculturation to take
place is the household
where the infant is born,
specifically the mother.
 The process of enculturation,
the transmission of culture from
one generation to the next,
started soon after birth.

 Generally, almost in all

societies, the primary agent for
enculturation to take place is
the household where the infant
is born, specifically the mother.
Although in some societies,
other members of the family will
also assume responsibilities over
the newly born baby.
 self-awareness. That is, the
ability to identify oneself as
an object, to react to oneself
and to appraise or evaluate
oneself (Haviland 1998).
 Through self-awareness, an
individual will assume
responsibilities for his/her own
actions, learn how to react
to others and started to
assume different roles based
on how he/she identifies
himself/herself in relation to
the values and norms of the
socio-cultural environment
where the individual belongs
 Personality and the physical and social
environment
Personality- is the interplay of various forces:
socialization, experiences and biological
inheritance. Personalities are products of
enculturation, as experienced by individuals,
each with his or her distinctive genetic
makeup; it is the distinctive way a person
thinks, feels and behaves.

 Personality – is a cultural category

 - result of internalizing culture, while culture is
the projection of personality. Product of
enculturation
 Self and identity
Identity – expresses a mutual relation in that
it connotes both a persistent sameness
within oneself (selfsameness) and a
persistent sharing of some kind of essential
characteristics with others (Erik Erikson)

 Product of enculturation
 In anthropology – self (persistent sameness
refer to as self
 - characteristics that an individual share
with others is the IDENTITY
The self embedded in
culture In the process of enculturation,

one learn about the world of
objects other than the self. this is
necessary for an individual to
function in the given physical
environment – organized
culturally and mediated
symbolically through language.
Culture then become useful for
an individual to adapt to the
given environment which
constitutes different forms of
ambiguities and uncertainties
 Culture has an enormous
implications for everyone’s
conception of self.
 Self as a Representation of
Culture
• Individual-
oriented
• Personal
accountability
• Explicit pursuit

• Social-oriented
• Role obligations
• Dialectical
balance
• Individualistic society/culture – reveal
independent, role obligations are less
important than personal attributes and
skills, stress personal rights over duties
• Collectivistsociety/culture (social-oriented) –
reveal a strong communal identity and
feelings of interconnectedness with others,
traditionally oriented and emphasize duties
and obligations to the group and shared role
expectations. Self is embedded in intimate
social relationships
 “self- development is a
lifelong process”, “the
concept of self is not fixed”,
it is “continuously in motion
and subject to change”. `