UNIT 1 THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVE

MODULE 3 FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ANTHROPOLOGY

Understanding the Self

WRITER:

Prof. ESPERANZA GRAN

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Overview:
Self understanding forms the backbone of social cognition and self concept. A
person’s self concept is their understanding of who they are and what makes them
unique. Understanding the self is the role that selfhood plays in defining human society
and each human individual in that society.

The Self in the Perspective of Anthropology

Learning Outcome.
1. Define anthropology and the anthropological approach.
2. Describe the origins and early development of anthropology.
3. Identify the four subdisciplines of anthropology and specify the focus of each.
4. Increase the awareness of the various dimensions of anthropology and its
influence on self concept.
5. Recognize what the field of anthropology can contribute to the understanding of
the seself.
6. Demonstrate critical and reflective thought in analyzing how culture influence our
beliefs and behavior.
7. Understand how culture and self are complementary concepts

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Introduction:
Anthropological perspective focuses on the study of the full scope of human diversity and
the application of that knowledge to help people of different background.
In anthropology the self came to be understood as a process that orchestrates an
individual’s personal experience following which she/he becomes self -aware and self-reflective
about her/his place in society.
In this module you will learn that every aspects of our lives can be studied in the past,
present or future from anthropological perspective that connects us to our past and helps to
prepare for the future.

Getting Into

What is Anthropology
-Anthropology is the field of social sciences that focuses on the study of man. This
does not pertain only to one aspect of man, but rather on the totality of what it means
to be human,
- The fields looks into man’s physical/ biological characteristics, the social
relationship and the influence of his culture from the dawn of civilization up to the
present.
- The main purpose of anthropology is for us to understand human biological and
cultural diversity, and the origins of humans.

The Self in Contemporary Anthropology

In anthropology the self came to be understood as a process that orchestrates an
individual's personal experience following which s/he becomes self-aware and self-reflective
about her or his place in society (Taylor, 1989).
It considers the genetic and cultural origins of self, the role that self plays in
socialisation and language, and the types of self we generate in our individual journeys to and
through adulthood. We rely on others to tell us about our self, and even to let us know we are
a self.
person” or personhood is a bundle of roles, norms of behavior, expectations,
responsibilities, obligations that situate a human being in social life. ... The self is an
identification that negotiates the tension/opposition between being a person and being unique
human.

What is contemporary anthropology

person” or personhood is a bundle of roles, norms of behavior, expectations, responsibilities,
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obligations that situate a human being in social life. ... The self is an identification that negotiates the
tension/opposition between being a person and being unique human

Archeology- this refers to the study of the ancient and recent human past through
material remains. It analyzes the physical remains of the past in pursuit of a broad and
comprehensive understanding of human culture.

Why Study of Archeology Important in Understanding the Self.

- Archeology provides us with the opportunity to learn about past cultures through the
study of artifacts, animal bones and sometimes human bones. Studying these artifacts
helps provide us with some insight about what life was, like for people who left behind
no written record.
- Archeologist’s focus is the past and how it may have contributed to the present ways
of how people conduct their daily lives. As a result, what archeologists have so far
discovered are the unique ways in which human beings adapted to changes in their
environment in order for them to survive.

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- Understanding the past may help us better understand our own society and that of
other cultures.

Linguistic Anthropology- is the interdisciplinary study of how language influences

social life. It is a branch anthropology that origins from the endeavor to document
languages, and has grown over the past century to encompass most aspects of
language structure and use.
How Linguistic Anthropology Contributes to Human Development
- Human survival is primarily linked to their ability to communicate and the essential
part of human communication is language.
- Linguistic anthropologists’ interest focuses on using language as a means to discover
a group’s manner of social interaction and his worldview.
- In the contemporary society, other forms of languages have evolve which represent
the subculture of a particular group such as the terms used in social media and other
group of people or community.
- As societies change and technologies develop so do the symbols and meaning people
attach to objects and events as expressed through the language that they use and their
manner of communicating.

Biological Anthropology- .
- Physical/ biological anthropology is the study of the past and present evolution of
the human species and is especially concerned with understanding the causes of
present human diversity. Within this broad definition it encompasses fields as
disparate as human palaeontology, evolutionary biology, human genetics,
comparative anatomy and physiology, primate behaviour, human behavioural
ecology, and human biology.

- Human biology broadly covers the areas of modern human biological variation,
human ecology, nutrition and demography. What makes physical/ biological
anthropology unique is that it brings all of these areas to bear on our
understanding of the human condition.

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Why is biological anthropology important?
- It seek to understand how humans adapt to different environments, what causes
disease and early death, and how humans evolved from other animals. To do this, they
study humans (living and dead), other primates such as monkeys and apes, and human
ancestors (fossils).
-The knowledge that biological anthropologists gather on living populations falls into
several overlapping categories, evolution and biosocial variation are underlying themes
in studies that deal with nutrition, child growth, health in societies, the genetics of
human populations, and adaptation (adjustment) to the environment.

Cultural Anthropology- Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused

on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology,
which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The
umbrella term sociocultural anthropology includes both cultural and social anthropology
traditions.
-Cultural anthropologists specialize in the study of culture and peoples’ beliefs,
practices, and the cognitive and social organization of human groups.

Importance of Cultural Anthropology

Anthropologists have pointed out that through culture people can adapt to their
environment in non-genetic ways, so people living in different environments will often
have different cultures. Much of anthropological theory has originated in an appreciation
of and interest in the tension between the local (particular cultures) and the global (a

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universal human nature, or the web of connections between people in distinct
places/circumstances).
- Cultural anthropologists study how people who share a common cultural system
organize and shape the physical and social world around them, and are in turn shaped
by those ideas, behaviors, and physical environments.

What is the self as Embedded in Culture

Culture and the Self

How we see ourselves shapes our lives, and is shaped by our cultural context.
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Self-perceptions influence, among other things, how we think about the world, our
social relationships, health and lifestyle choices, community engagement, political
actions, and ultimately our own and other people's well-being.

Social scientists have long understood that people in different parts of the world see
themselves in different ways, but research has often been driven by a rather black-
and-white — and some would say stereotypical — view of what the differences are.

Culture matters to the extent that it is normal for different experiences to be

felt by the individuals in a given society. It is worth noting here that the
perspectives in cultural matters usually provide a new insight into the
psychological processes.

The experiences we go through in life are facilitated by the culture we live

in, because culture provides or is the environment which allows all these
experiences to take place (Warder, 1996).

culture has such a greater influence on an individual’s life contributing

majorly to the self concept of an individual. The influence might either be
negative or positive depending on the type of culture that one has been brought
up in.

It is important that individuals study and appreciate their culture and its
contribution in shaping their individual personalities.

Testing the Knowledge Gained

1.Which of the following is a characteristic of anthropology?

a. It is concerned with both human biology and culture.

b. It is concerned with human variation, evolution, and adaptation.
c. focuses only on prehistoric societies.
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 2.Which of the following is true about anthropology?

a.It usually is preferable to do anthropological research alone rather than

with a team of researchers.
b..Anthropology as an academic discipline is comparatively young.
c..Most anthropologists today are generalists--they master all of the fields of
anthropology.

3.What do anthropologists mean when they refer to the concept of

"integration" in regards to cultures?

a. Different kinds of people should learn to live together in peace.

b. Any successful behavior, strategy, or technique for obtaining food and
surviving in a new environment provides a selective advantage in the
competition for survival with other creatures.
c. The best way to study another culture is by working with a team of
researchers from different academic disciplines.

3. Which of anthropology is primarily interested in the prehistory and early

history societies and other cultures
a. cultural anthropology
b. biological anthropology
c. archeology

4. Biological Anthropology includes the study of the following topics:

a. non-human primates
b. fossil records of human evolution
c. human variation
5. Which subfield of anthropology would most likely interested in the pattern of
kinship, beliefs and tradition of different societies.
a. a. cultural anthropology
b. linguistic
b. c. archeology

6. Anthropological linguistics studies of

a. human social class

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 b. human language
c. human disease
7.An artifact is

a. written record of past culture

b. a theory of evolution
c. an object made by human being that is of with historic or cultural
significance
8.The study of historic or prehistoric human populations through analysis on
material remains.
a. Anthropology
b. Linguistic anthropology
c. Archeology

Explain briefly the following questions:

8.Cultural Anthropology (the study of human cultures) Why do people

differ in their beliefs and behaviors?

___________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

9. Why is there ethnic conflict in the world?

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________

10. What is life like in a simpler society?

Reference:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/biological-anthropology
https://www.discoveranthropology.org.uk/about-anthropology/what-is-anthropology/biological-
anthropology.html
https://physanth.org/career/career-biological-anthropology/
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https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fslideplayer.com%2Fslide%2F14620926%2F
90%2Fimages%2F13%2FBiological%2BAnthropology.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_anthropology
https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1209

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/overview-relevant-topics-regarding-worldwide-
cultures-1278872059
https://medium.com/@anthropology4u/faq-what-kinds-of-questions-do-anthropologists-ask-
3c8b962762eb

https://www.apa.org/pubs/highlights/spotlight/issue-71

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