ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE OF
THE SELF
WHAT MAN IS NOW IS A PRODUCT OF HIS
PAST.
ANTHROPOLOGY
-It holds a holistic view of human nature. It is
concerned with how cultural and biological
processes interact to shape the self.
-Anthropology considers human experience as an
interplay of “nature” referring to genetic inheritance
which sets the individual’s potentials and “nurture”
which refers to sociocultural environment.
-Anthropologists explore aspects of human biology,
evolutionary biology, linguistic, cultural studies,
history, economic and other social sciences.
Anthropological self: concept of self is viewed in
different societies
EGOCENTRIC
-concept of the self suggests that each person is
defined as a replica of all humanity but capable of
acting independently from others.
SOCIOCENTRIC
-concept of the self is viewed as dependent on the
situation or social setting.
THE SELF AND THE PERSON IN
CONTEMPORARY ANTHROPOLOGY
I. ANTHROPOLOGY AND ITS
SUBDISCIPLINES
The academic discipline of anthropology, or “four-
field” anthropology, studies human species and its
immediate ancestors includes four main sub
disciplines: sociocultural, archeological, biological
and linguistic anthropology.
FOCAL POINTS OF ANTHOPOLOGY
-Man in the physical, cultural and existential
features with the purpose of gaining deeper
understanding of man’s place in the world.
1.CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
-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.
THREE IMPORTANT ATTRIBUTES OF AN
INDIVIDUAL’S CULTURE:
1. “Created by people,” evolving due to human
activities and passed on to the succeeding
generations.
2. The impacts of cultural influence is both
intangible and tangible.
3. The cultural environment evolves, and it is most
often evolving over lengthy periods.
ETHNOGRAPHY (based on cross-cultural
comparison)
-Ethnography requires fieldwork to collect data,
often descriptive and specific to group.
ETHNOLOGY (based on field work)
- Ethnology uses data collected by a series of
researchers, usually synthetic and comparative.
2. ARCHEOLOGIC ALANTHROPOLOGY
-Archeological anthropology reconstructs, describes
and interprets human behavior and cultural patterns
through material remains. These materials such as
plant, animal and ancient garbage provides stories
about utilization and actions.
3. BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
-also known as physical anthropology, is a scientific
discipline concerned with the biological and
behavioral aspects of human beings, their extinct
hominin ancestors, and related non-human primates,
particularly from an evolutionary perspective.
4. LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY
-is a branch of anthropology that studies the role of
language in the social lives of individuals and
communities.
-According to Pier Paolo Giglioli in “Language and
Social Content,” anthropologists study the
relationship between worldviews, grammatical
categories and semantic fields, the influence of
speech on socialization and personal relationships,
and the interaction of linguistic and social
communities.
-Linguistic anthropology closely studies those
societies where language defines a culture or
society.
THE SELF EMBEDDED IN THE CULTURE
CULTURE
-is a way of life of a group of people--the behaviors,
beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept,
generally without thinking about them, and that are
passed along by communication and imitation from
one generation to the next.
CULTURAL INFLUENCE S THAT SHAPES
THE SELF
ENCULTURATION
-is the process by which a person adopts the
behavior patterns of the culture he lives in.
ACCULTURATION
-The process by which an individual or group
adopts the practices and values of one culture while
still retaining their own culture of origin.
CULTURE AS HINDRANCE OF OUR
IDENTITY
“culture influences our beliefs about what is true
and false, our attitudes including our likes and
dislikes, our values regarding what is right and
wrong, and our behaviors.”