Republic of the Philippines

Camarines Norte School of Law

COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE
EDUCATION
Talisay, Camarines Norte

Anthropological Perspective of the Self

Lesson 3

Objectives:

At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

1. understand the self in the perspective of Anthropology;

2. discuss the subdisciplines of Anthropology;
3. examine how culture affect the formation of the self.

Discussion:

Anthropology

“We are each a product of biological endowments, culture, and personal history. Culture,
ideology, and cultural events along with transmitted cultural practices influence each of us.
We are each a molecule in the helix of human consciousness joined in a physical world. We
form a coil of connective tissue soldered together by cultural links.” - Kilroy Oldster

Anthropology - Anthropos (Human) Logos (Study)

It is the systematic study of humanity, with the goal of understanding our evolutionary origins,
our distinctiveness as a species, and the great diversity in our forms of social existence across
the world and through time.

The Self and the Person in Contemporary Anthropology

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 or subfields -
sociocultural, archeological, biological and linguistic anthropology. Each sub discipline
studies adaptation, the process which organisms cope with the environmental. Anthropology
is a systematic exploration of human biological and cultural diversity.

The Subdisciplines of Anthropology

1. Cultural Anthropology
Cultural anthropology is the study of human society and culture which describes,
analyzes, interprets and explains social and cultural similarities and differences.
It explores the diversity of the present and the past. Ethnography and ethnology are
two different activities which can study and interpret cultural diversity.

Ethnography
(based on field work)
Ethnology
(based on cross-cultural comparison)
 Republic of the Philippines
Camarines Norte School of Law
COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE
EDUCATION
Talisay, Camarines Norte

Ethnography requires
fieldwork to collect data, often descriptive and specific to group. On the other hand,
ethnology uses data collected by a series of researches, usually synthetic and
comparative.

2. Archeological Anthropology
Archeological anthropology reconstructs, describes and interprets human
behavior and cultural patterns through material remains. These materials remain
such as plant, animal and ancient garbage provides stories about utilization and
actions.

3. Biological, or Physical Anthropology

Biological, or Physical Anthropology focuses on these special interest, human
evolution as revealed by the fossil, human genetics, human growth and
development, human biological plasticity and the biology, evolution, behavior and
social life of monkeys, apes and other nonhuman primates.

4. Linguistic Anthropology
Linguistic anthropology studies language in its social and cultural context across
space and over time. Universal features of language are analyzed and association
between language and culture are evaluated. It also studies how speech changes in
social situations and over time.

• Anthropology encroaches on the territory of the science as well as the humanities,

and transcends, the
conventional
boundaries of both
while
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Camarines Norte School of Law
COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE EDUCATION
 Talisay, Camarines Norte

addressing questions from distant past and the pressing present— perhaps with
implications for the future.
• An academic field that understands the interconnection and interdependence of
biological cultural aspects of human experience at all times and in all places

Who am I?
Nature- genetic inheritance which sets the individual’s potential
Nurture- the sociocultural environment that influences self

• Anthropology is concerned with how cultural and biological process to interact

to shape human experience.

In addition:
▪ Understanding of self through ethnographic investigations (sampling
method, observation, sentence completion, interview)
▪ Complex relationship of self and culture (explain how)

THE SELF
"Physical organism, possessing psychological functioning and social attributes“ -Katherine
Ewing(1990)

Self as separate it is meant that the self is distinct from other selves. It is always unique and
has its own identity. One cannot be another person.
Self as self-contained and independent it can exist by itself. Its distinctness allows it to be
self-contained with its own thoughts, characteristics and volition. It does not require any
other self for it to exist.
Self as consistent it has its own personality that is enduring and therefore can be expected to
persist for quite some time. Its consistency allows it to be studied, described, and measured.
Self as unitary it is the center of all experiences and thoughts that run through a certain
person. It is like the chief command post in an individual where all processes, emotions, and
thoughts converge.
Self as Private each person sorts out information, feelings and emotions and thoughts
processes within the self. This
whole process is never
accessible to anyone but the
self. It
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Camarines Norte School of Law
COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE EDUCATION
Talisay, Camarines Norte

suggests that the self

The Self Embedded in the Culture

Culture refers to customary behavior and beliefs that are passed on through
enculturation (Kottak, 2008), wherein enculturation is the social process which culture
is learned and transmitted.
Culture is a social process that is learned and passes from generation to the next.
Culture depends on images, which have a specific significance and incentive forindividuals
who share a culture. Cultural traditions take regular marvels, including organic desires, and
transforming them specifically headings. Everybody is cultured. Social orders are coordinated
and designed through predominant monetary powers, social examples, key images and core
values. Cultural mean of adjustment have been urgent in human evolution. Cultures oblige
people, yet the activities of people can change cultures.

Culture defined: Culture is shared, symbolic, natural, learned, integrated,

encompassingand maladaptive and adaptive.
Csordas (1999) elaborated that the human body is not essential for anthropological
study but the paradigm of embodiment can be explored in the understanding culture
and the self. The body is not an object to be studied in relation to culture, but is to be
considered as the subject of culture, or in other words as the existential ground of culture. On
the other hand, Geertz (1973) described culture as "a system of inherited conceptions
expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate,perpetuate, and
develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life"

SELF IDENTITY
The basic meaning of identity refers to where one (a person or a group) belongs, and what is
expressed as “self-image”
or/and “common-image”, what
integrate them inside self or
group
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Camarines Norte School of Law
COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE EDUCATION
Talisay, Camarines Norte

existence, and what differentiate them vis-à-vis “others”.

In anthropological theory cultural paradigm is applied in order to explain the genesis of

identity and the complexity of its meaning.
 Therefore, there is an agreement that identity is specifically “anthropological
category”, in terms of identification with one’s own culture and self-reflection of the way one
is to live in a given socio-cultural environment, because it is a matter of conviction, or a
possibility of choice due to its multidimensional expressions: as class, status, profession,
styling or symbolic connotation.
Cultural paradigms provide us with cultivated concepts of what it means to be and
how to be human. Once learned, they provide guidance for our lives in the form of knowledge
of the customs of our peers.

The interpretation of the symbols in each culture is essential which gives meaning to
one’s action. Each culture has its own symbols and has its own meaning; one must need to
comprehend those meanings keeping in mind the end goal to understand the culture. One must
disconnect the components of culture, discover the relationship among those components, and
portray the entire framework in some broad way.

TWO VIEWS OF SELF

Sociocentric - the self is contingent on a situation or social setting.
• Japan
• China
Egocentric - the self is seen as an autonomous and distinct individual.
• America
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Camarines Norte School of Law
COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE
EDUCATION
Talisay, Camarines Norte

Identity toolbox - features of person’s identity that he or she choose to emphasize in

constructing self.
Individual
• Kinship
• Gender
• Age
Group
• Membership
 • Language
• Religion

Personal Naming
• establishes child’s birthright and social identity
• individualize a person
• legitimize a person as a member of social group
Cultures around the world
•AYMARA INDIANS- do not consider individual as human until name is given
•ICELANDER- name babies soon after birth
•MINANGKABAU- babies inherit mother’s family name
•ARCTIC CANADA- babies named after deceased relatives
•PHILIPPINES- babies named after patron saints

The Rites of Passage by Arnold van Gennep, 1908

“The critical problems of becoming male and female, relations within family, and passing into
old age, are directly related to the devices which the society offers the individual to help him
achieve the new adjustment.”

It is a celebration of the passage which occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter
another. It involves a significant change of status in society.

Three phases:
1. separation (people detach from former identity)
2. liminal (person’s transition from one identity to another
3. incorporation (change in status)

IDENTITY STRUGGLES
-discrepancy between person’s assumed identity and identity imposed by others
and society. (self-identification; cultural changes, conflicting norms and postmodern
society)

ILLUSIONARY OF WHOLENESS
Argues that in all cultures,
people project multiple,
inconsistent self-representations
that
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Camarines Norte School of Law
COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE EDUCATION
Talisay, Camarines Norte

are context-dependent and that may shift rapidly. These self-concepts are constructed
and maintained by means of a similar process in all cultures.

GOLUBOVIC THEORY OF IDENTITY CRISIS

In order to attain self-identification, individuals have to overcome many obstacles as
traditionally established habits and externally imposed self-images.

KNOW THY SELF

It is argued that an analysis of how a particular individual acts in situations involving
contradictory identities requires a concept of a self as it emerges from the actions of
individuals that is capable managing the respectively shared identities.
 Besides any culture‐specific attributes, this self is endowed with reflexivity and
agency. This concept of self is a necessary supplement to the concept of culture in
anthropology and should be regarded as a human universal. (Sokefeld, 1999).

Human body is not essential for anthropological study but the paradigm of
embodiment can be explored in the understanding culture and the self. -Csordas (1999) •
The body is not an object to be studied in relation to culture, but is to be considered as the
subject of culture, or in other words as the existential ground of culture

Culture as "a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of

which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes
toward life” -Geertz (1973)
“without men, no culture: without culture, no men”

Symbolic interpretative model of culture

The interpretation of the symbols in each culture is essential which gives meaning to one’s
action
Each culture has its own symbols and has its own meaning; one must need to comprehend
those meanings keeping in mind the end goal to understand the culture. One must disconnect
the components of culture, discover the relationship among those components, and portray
the entire framework in some broad way.

Joel Robbins (1961)

• Humans are cultural animals.
• Humans are cultural animals as they create meanings of objects, persons, behaviors,
emotions, and events, and behave in accordance with meaning they assume to be
true.

A French Anthropologist, Marcel Mauss states that every person has two faces:
• the personne and the moi.
Moi
• It refers to a person’s
sense of who he is, his
body, and his basic
identity, his
Republic of the Philippines
Camarines Norte School of Law
COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE EDUCATION
Talisay, Camarines Norte

biological givenness.
Personne
• It is composed of the social concepts of what it means to be who he is. It means to live
in a particular institution, a particular family, a particular religion, a particular
nationality, and how to behave given expectations and influences from others.
The dynamics and capacity for different personne can be illustrated as better cross
culturally. An example of this is our Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW), who are
adjusting to life in another country is a very good study of the case. For a common
Filipino who are residing here in the country, many of us unabashedly violate
jaywalking rules.

In sum, one may say that culture provides patterns of “ways of life” (for both
collective and individual existence); as well as ways/types of thinking and believing
besides common experiences and frames of value-references. Nevertheless, being that
culture is pluralistic, identity itself may have plural forms not only in different
 cultures, but within the individual’s and collective’s expressions, and also in the
context of their experiences of the given ways of life.

Evaluation

Answer the following questions: (see assessment 3 attached)

References:

Csordas, T. (1999). Self and person. In bode (Ed.), Psychological Anthropology (pp. 331 –
350). Praeger. 331 – 350.

Geertz, C. (1973). The Impact of the Concept of Culture and Concept of Man. In the
interpretation of culture (pp. 33 – 54). Basic Book.

Geertz, C. (1973). Person, time and conduct in Bali. In the interpretation of culture (pp.360
– 411). Basic Book.

Prepared by:

CARLO A. RAZONABLE
Instructor