01

ANTHROPOL
OGY
The Self in Modern Anthropology &
in Culture
 What is Anthropology?
ANTHROPOLOGY is the study of people
past and present. It is concerned with
understanding how humans evolved and how
they differ from one another.

In our understanding of the self, ANTHROPOLOGY focuses on understanding the human condition in its cultural
aspect.

CULTURE-the sum total of learned beliefs, values, and customs that serve to direct the
behavior of the members of a particular society.
Cultural factors include geography, age, socioeconomic
status, religion, gender, education, language, politics,
sexual orientation, race and ethnicity The shared values, norms, traditions, customs, history and
beliefs of a group of people

CULTURE
It shapes how people experience their world, make
decisions about life, work, and how people relate to
The beliefs, customs, practices, art, ways of life,
and behavior of a particular nation or group of
others people that is passed down from generation to
generation
Self- Check (Motivation)

How do I react to these situations

when you are alone:
1. When all of a sudden you heard a
very loud thunder.
2. When you farted.
3. When you sneezed and some
snot came out.
4. When you saw a rat/cockroach
running towards you.

Now, go over again the situations and

imagine you are in these situations in
public.
 Contemporar
y
Anthropology
Katherine Ewing (1990) described the
SELF as encompassing the “physical
organism, possessing psychological
functioning and social attributes”.

This definition portrays the Self as implicitly

and explicitly existing in the mind comprised
of psychological, biological and cultural
processes.
 Contemporar
y
Anthropology
“SELF” is illusory. People construct a series
of self-representations that are based on
selected cultural concepts of person and
selected ‘chains’ of personal memory.

*self-presentation is the mental entities that

are supposed to shape the self.
 Contemporar
y
Anthropology
People from all cultures have been
observed to be able to rapidly display different
self-representations, depending on the context of
the situation, and the person is unaware of these
shifts, but he/she will still experience wholeness.

We have different versions of

ourselves that we present depending on the
situation.
 Contemporar
y
Anthropology
Joseph LeDoux(2002) conceptualized the
implicit and explicit aspects of the self.

EXPLICIT- the aspect of yourself that you

are consciously aware of

IMPLICIT- the aspect that is not

immediately available to the consciousness.

Like Sigmund Freud!

 Contemporar
y
Anthropology
“The self is not static; it is added to and
subtracted from by genetic maturation,
learning, forgetting, stress, ageing, and
disease”.

The self is framed, maintained, and affected

biologically, mentally, and socially.
 The Self Embedded in Culture
How individuals see themselves, how they relate to other people, and how they relate to the environment are deeply
defined by CULTURE. Since we are a product of society, the ways of how the self is developed is different across
cultures.

The Self is culturally shaped and infinitely variable.

The principles of how the mind works cannot be
conceived of as universal, but that it is as varied as
the culture and traditions that people practice all
over the world.
 2 ways the SELF
is constructed:
1. Individualistic culture 2. Collectivist culture

Seen mostly in western countries. They Common in East Asian countries. They value
represent the self as separate, distinct, with the connections between the individuals and
emphasis on internal attributes and traits, other people.
skills and values.
Developmental Psychologist Catherine
Raeff (2010) believed that culture can
influence how you view relationships,
personality traits, achievement, and
expressing emotions.