Anthropology

Understanding the Self

Objectives

 define anthropology
 explain culture and the mechanisms of
enculturation
 synthesize anthropological perspectives
on self-awareness and self-reflexive
conduct
 show appreciation of one’s cultural
identity through practice of one’s
cultural values
Anthropology

 Anthropology is a study of all the aspects

of human condition.
 This includes human history, the present
human condition, and even the future
possibilities. It also examines the biology,
interactions in society, language and
especially culture.
The self is a living animal but
superior to other animals due to
certain factors, namely:
a.) physical aspects
b.) social aspects
Culture

 Culture is traditionally defined as systems

of human behavior and thought. This
covers all customs, traditions and
capabilities of humans as they function
in society. In other words, cultures are
those complex structures of knowledge,
beliefs, arts, religion, morals, law,
language, traditional practices and all
other aspects needed by humans to
function in society.
Enculturation

 Enculturation is the transmission of culture

from one generation to the next. Unlike
biological hereditary transmission,
cultural transmission is done through
observation, use of language,
adaptation to environment, rituals, and
formal and informal education. Every
member of the community will then
distinguish themselves from other
communities because of the differences
in the way people do things in their lives.
The Self and Person in
Contemporary Anthropology
 The anthropological self takes a holistic
dimension of the individual person. It
considers both the biological and
environmental aspects of the person.
 The growing years of the child is very
crucial in anthropological perspective.
This is the time when the child develops
the psychological construct of
dependency or independency.
 In many western  On the contrary, in
cultures where
independence is the
cultural emphasis, the
child is usually provided
with a room and is
trained to be
independent by giving
less physical contact
from parents or carers.
most part of Asia and
Africa, children are
reared in close contact
with parents, especially
the mother, thus
developing the sense
of dependence on
significant others and
the immediate
community (like the
family).
Self-awareness

 Anthropology defines self-awareness as

“that which permits one to assume
responsibility for one’s own conduct, to
learn how to react to others, and to
assume a variety of roles.
 Self-awareness is conceptualized much
earlier by children sleeping with parents
and are exposed to a variety of stimuli
like touch and the like.
 The child must be able to get the culturally
correct values necessary for adult life.
Parents, immediate family and the
community play a vital role in the
development of the child’s values. What the
child observes from what the adults are doing
or thinking will more likely be adapted and
imitated by the child.
 However, in the continued process of self-
awareness, the child will eventually develop
his or her own identity. This identity is further
intensified by a practice common to all
cultures – the naming ritual.
Naming

 Naming individualizes a person.

 The person’s name is also a symbol of
one’s status in the community.
 It either gives you honor or stigma.
invidualizes a person.
C.2b Self and Behavioral
Environment
The four environmental orientations
are:
object orientation,
spatial orientation,
temporal orientation and
normative orientation.
Object orientation positions the self in
relation to the surrounding objects.
Spatial orientation provides the self with
personal space in relation to other people or
things.
Temporal orientation endows the self with
the sense of time.
Normative orientation provides the self with
the grasp of accepted norms in the
community.
C.3 The Self Embedded in
Culture
Psychological anthropologists recognize
the thin line that distinguishes the cultural
self and the “actual self.”
 The cultural self includes all the feelings,
thoughts, experiences, biological and
psychological constitutions, language
and memory.
 However the actual self is also being
shaped by all these same elements and
more.
This shows that the self should not
maintain the individualistic,
independent and autonomous
entity but that the self should be
able to maintain his or her solid
culturally reflexive identity in
relation to everything and
everyone else.
 The anthropological movements at this
time are already geared toward
recognizing the power of culture in
influencing little gaps and interstices,
meaning intervening spaces between
people.
 It is only when the self recognizes the
power of culture constituted by every
system that we can have an effective
shaping of social reality.
example

One perhaps is the attitude of

some indigenous peoples (IP),
especially the IP students enrolled
in big universities where they do
not want to be recognized as IP or
they do not want to be identified
as IP.
 Cultural degradation means the loss of a
particular culture due to assimilation or
loss of interest. Assimilation happens
when a dominant culture, the Ilocano
culture for example, is overshadowing
the inferior culture, meaning the culture
possessed by lesser population living
within the Ilocano communities: the
inferior culture will eventually lose its
identity.
 In a larger scale, culture is also lost
through continued violence, genocide,
inability to respect traditions, religions,
beliefs, and the cultural community’s
sense of pride, which are largely the
result of globalization.
 Television for instance influences language,
traditions, beliefs, knowledge and even
personalities. In judging beauty for, media
proposes the following criteria:
 face must be beautiful and unpimpled.
 hair must be black and silky.
 skin color must be fair and flawless.
 body must be slim and toned, etc.

 “Culture is also not a force or causal agent in the

world, but a context in which people live out
their lives.” (Clifford Geertz, 1973)
Summary

 In anthropology, the self is recognized

as:
(1) biologically attuned to respond to
his or her environment,
(2) variably self-aware of the
mechanisms of the elements of culture
working within the self, and
(3) self-reflexive of the uniqueness and
differences of all other selves and
everything else around.