ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

THE SELF AND THE PERSON IN CONTEMPORARY ANTHROPOLOGY

With the identicalness of our physical environment and the cultures in which we thrive, can we
affirm that all men are alike? These questions about human universals form part of the central
themes of anthropology since its inception as a scientific discipline.

In their book, Personality in Nature, Society and Culture, psychologist Henry Murray and
anthropologist Clyde Kluckhohn (1953) claimed that “Every man is in certain respects like all
other men, like some other men, and like no other man.” This statement pictured how pre-
contemporary and contemporary anthropology viewed the human person. The pre-
contemporary view of human nature demonstrated sameness, invariability, and
universality where man was regarded as identical, constant, and general.

Humans, like all other species, are considered essentially the same regardless of place and time.
Thus, they are predictable and can be studied uniformly.

While recognizing the self as an unchanging entity, anthropologists also accept its inherent
variability. Contemporary anthropologists subscribe to a more holistic approach in studying
the self by looking unto human variety brought about by variations across cultures and variations
over time.

They suggest that the human person can be studied from many points of view. And that it’s
only when we study the full range of human phenomenon and consider the inescapable fact that
men are in many respects like no other man, can we genuinely appreciate human nature. This
calls for a more comprehensive and encompassing approach towards understanding the human
person. That is, taking into account all the physical, biological, psychological, social and
cultural elements that make up the self.

This pursuit towards a holistic appreciation of the human nature was supported scientifically. For
instance, Anthropology Professor Katherine Ewing asserted an integrative stance on the self
by defining it as one that which “encompasses the physical organism, possessing all aspects
of psychological functioning, and social attributes”, (1990:254).

Even the neurobiologist Joseph LeDoux described the self as the totality of what an organism
is physically, biologically, psychologically, socially, and culturally. He further claimed that
though the self is a unit, it is not unitary” (2002: 31).

Considering then the totality of all the processes and elements that constitute the self and the
interrelationship between and amongst these remain to be fundamental in understanding the
human being. Study the figure below. What does this show about how anthropology advances
our understanding of ourselves?
 https://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/
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Concept m
of Culture

Cultural anthropology being one of the sub-disciplines of anthropology underscores the concept
of culture and its influence in shaping the self. By reflecting on your outputs in the activity
Festival of Cultures, you probably had a good grasp of what culture is and what constitute it.
You might have also realized how culture affects the way you construe your personal identity.

Culture is a broad construct which covers a wide range of elements – from your clothing
designs to your food preferences, the dialect you use for communicating, the festivals you enjoy,
the religious beliefs and customs you observe, the set of values you conform to, or even the kinds
of books you read, or the jokes you crack – all these illuminate your way of life and all these
elements form part of the culture you were raised to.

One of the most fundamental aspects of culture is symbol. As people interact, they share a
common set of symbols which represent their identity. Cultural symbols aid in establishing the
uniqueness of a particular culture. When properly preserved and accurately passed on from
one generation to the other, it continues to be an indelible representation of one’s personhood.

Our Bodies and Culture

Your bodies and what you do with it is a reflection of the life you live and the culture you
were accustomed to. Body modifications and embellishments for instance are regarded as part of
the norms and representations of some cultures.

The Self Embedded In Culture

The self as a basic psychological concept which is commonly assumed to be static and have a
universal nature is therefore susceptible to changes depending on social situations and cultural
contexts. The self is malleable and can act in different ways depending on circumstances; it is
multi-faceted yet unified. As such, the self has to be examined as an entity embedded in culture.

Having interest in cross-cultural understandings of the person, French sociologist and

anthropologist Marcel Mauss (1950) substantiated on the notion of person as a cultural
category. He used the terms moi (refers to the concept of self) and personne (refers to the
concept of person) but underscored the latter in elucidating about personhood. According to
him, the person was considered primarily a cultural conception, or a ‘category’ of a particular
community.
As a social category, the person is said to be socially and culturally constituted that can only be
understood in relation to everything else in the society and thus, may be subject to quite
substantial, if not infinite, variation.

Harry Triandis (2019), a psychology professor at the University of Illinois, furthered the
discourse about the self being culturally shaped. In his research, The Self and Social Behavior
in Differing Cultural Contexts (1989), he introduced and distinguished three aspects of the self:
private, public, and collective self. The private self are cognitions that involve traits, states, or
behaviors of the person; it is an assessment of the self by the self. Statements like “I am
amiable”; “I am outspoken”; “I will buy X” are examples of our self-assessments about
ourselves.

The public self on the other hand refers to cognitions concerning the generalized other’s view of
the self, such as statements like “People think I am shy” or “People think I will buy X”. The
public self is an assessment of the self by the generalized others. The collective self are
cognitions concerning a view of the self that is found in some collective (e.g., family, co-
workers, tribe, scientific society), such as, “My family thinks I am introverted” or “My co-
workers believe I shop too much.” The collective self corresponds to an assessment of the self by
a specific reference or groups. These aspects of the self are heavily influenced by culture.