Anthropology
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The study of human races, origins, societies
In culture we have traditions, beliefs, myths, gender orientation, family traits
 Holds a holistic view of human nature
 How cultural and biological processes interact to shape human experience
 Culture and self are complementary concepts that are to be
Processes a holistic and integrated approach to examine human nature
 It encroaches on the the territory of sciences as well as humanities
(humanities-arts, dance, song, movie, sculpture, infrastructure
Ex; Why the dance?)
 Academic field in understanding the interconnections and interdependence of biological and
cultural aspects of the human experience in all times and places
 Both biological and cultural factors have a significant influence in the development of selfawareness.
The cultural construction of self & identity
Edward Tylor
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Complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and any other
capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society
Ex; Beore 1521 we have already a culture. Culture can be based on Lapu-Lapu, bahags were used
by men and women.
When colonizers came, they introduced a behavior. This type of behavior became a guide
behavior.
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But culture is not behavior itself but the shared understandings that guide behavior and are
expressed in behavior (Peacock, 1986)
Significance of culture has enormous implications for everone’s conception of self (can Meijl,
2008)
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Martin Sokefield
Believes that concept of self is a necessary supplement to the concept of culture in anthropology and
should be regarded as a human universa. Culture and self thus become complementary ceonceps that
have to be understood in relation to one another.
Concept of Self
Egocentric
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Viewed as autonomous and distinct individual
A view of the self that defines each person as a replica of all humanity but capable of acting
independently from others
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Nice because liberated, but it may be bad (Ex; during the pandemic, we should be socientric)
Sociocentric
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View as contingent on a situation or social setting
View of self as context dependent
Maam’s Notes:
Ex; Is good (ex; in pandemic) but may be bad (if there isn’t a pandemic, you can’t be who you
are, sometimes society is wrong and political
Korea is sociocentric
Race
Gender
Religion
Family
Language
Personal Naming
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Universal practice with numerous cross cultural variations establishes a child’s birthright and
social identity
An important device to individualize a person and at the same times becomes a legitimate
member of a group
Intimate markers of the person, differentiating individuals from others
Symbolically represents his or her cultural self
Theres no self in the individual is without a name, personal names represent the self
Arnold van Gennep
Changes in one’s identity is marked by a three-phased file of passage:
Separation- people detach from their former identity to another (Ex; death of a loved on, we have to
detach ourself, or broken relationships)
Liminal- one has left one identity but has not yet entered or jointed the next
(Ex; Circumcision, in preparation for puberty. Liminal because although young, they are being
prepared/or ask them to enter a new phase, but still cant leave being young because they are still boys,
not yet capable mentally)
(Ex; menstruation in women)
Incorporation- changes are incorporated into a new identity by elaborated rituals and ceremonies
(initiation rituals) makes a person to readily accept new ways of looking at himself and others
You are not forgetting your identity, you are incorporating new identity
Ex; debuts, when you are 18 the society views you as someone who can do legal things
fraternities inisitiaton rites
The self as embedded in Culture
Acc to Cliffort Geertz
Offers a reformation of the concept of culture which favor a symbolic interpretative model of culture
Defines culture as a “system if ubherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which
men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitude towards life
Suggested two important ideas about concept of culture and men
a. Culture should not be perceived only as complexes of concrete behavior patterns, but as a set of
control mechanism
b. Man is precisely the animal most desperately dependent upon such extragenetic, outside the
skin control mechanism
Human nature is interdependent with culture
Without men, no culture, certainly; but equally, and more significantly, without culture, no men