click to edit master title style cultural anthropology, 7e chapter 6 the cultural construction of...

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Cultural Anthropology, 7E

Chapter 6– The Cultural Construction of Identity

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• How do people determine who they are, and how they communicate who they think they are to others?

Problem 6




• The Importance of Self• Society is a collection of social identities

distributed over a landscape. • Individuals strive to arrive at some

identity/destination from which they can relate to other social identities.

Introduction




6.1 How does the concept of personhood vary from society to society?6.2 How do societies distinguish individuals from one another?6.3 How do individuals learn who they are?6.4 How do individuals communicate their identities to one another?6.5 How do individuals defend their identities when they are threatened?

Questions




• Individualistic: a view of the self in which the individual is primarily responsible for his or her own actions• America is a highly individualistic society.

• Holistic: a view of the self in which the individual cannot be conceived of as existing separately from society or apart from his or her status or role• Views humans as “drops in the ocean.”

6.1 How Does the Concept of Personhood Vary from Society to Society?




• The Egocentric and Sociocentric Self• In the egocentric view each person is defined as a

replica of all humanity, the locus of motivations and drives, capable of acting independently from others.

• The sociocentric view of the self depends on context. • The self exists as an entity only within the concrete

situations or roles occupied by the person.





• Personhood in Japan and America• Some anthropologists attribute a sociocentric view

of the self to the Japanese. • They are more apt to include within the boundaries of

the self the social groups of which the person is a member.

• The American self-concept does not extend beyond the physical body.

• Japanese children are not trained to be self-reliant, but are taught that interdependence between the person and the family or group is more important.





• Personhood in Japan and America (cont.)





• Identity Toolbox: features of a person’s identity that he or she chooses to emphasize in constructing a social self.

• Some characteristics are almost universally used to differentiate and to group them.

• Family membership, gender, and age, for example, are used in every society as categories of a social code.

• Other characteristics figure prominently only in some societies: ethnic group membership, skin color, and wealth, for example.

6.2 How Do Societies Distinguish Individuals from One Another?




• Constructing Male and Female•Gender is a cultural creation. •Gender assignment begins at birth with the

announcement that it’s a girl, or a boy, ignoring 4% of births in which the infant has both male and female characteristics.

•The infant is given a gender-appropriate name, dressed in “proper clothing,” and spoken to in gender-specific language.





• Language, Gender, and Race• Language is one of the tools people have to signal how

they want to be placed in society (ex: voice pitch).•Grammar can signal gender; in English, the third

person singular he or she forces us to differentiate gender.

• Judgments about race are coded in the way we speak.• References to the color black are used throughout, generally

with negative meanings.• Names of some sports teams (Braves, Chiefs, Redskins) are

demeaning to Native Americans.





• In a classic work published in 1908, Arnold van Gennep introduced the concept of rites of passage.

•These rituals mark a person’s passage from one identity to another, in three phases: .• The ritual separates the person from an existing

identity.• The person enters a transition phase.• The changes are incorporated into a new identity.

6.3 How Do Individuals Learn Who They Are?




• The Transition to Adulthood • The transition is more difficult for boys than girls,

since boys must symbolically separate from their mothers while also entering into manhood.• The Maasai require that for a male to attain the identity of

“worthy man,” he must own cattle, be generous to others, and be autonomous & independent, capable of defending his homestead and his honor.

• Then begins his public circumcision, a painful ordeal.





• The Transition to Adulthood (cont.)

• One right of passage for American males, associated with fraternities may include:• Food fights• Gang rapes (“pulling

train”), which Sanday terms phallocentrism, the deployment of the penis as a concrete symbol of masculine social power and dominance.





• Trobriand Islanders define and maintain their social identities by participating in the Kula ring, a ritualized pattern of gift-giving involving the exchange of necklaces and armbands.

6.4 How Do Individuals Communicate Their Identities to One Another?




• Gifts and Commodities• The history of gifts, the story behind them, forms part

of the identity of the person who gives them, and say something special about the relationship between the giver and the receiver of the gift.

• Carrier argues that mass production has made gifts impersonal:• Commodities: Goods that carry no special meaning.• Commodities involve a transfer of value and a counter

transfer:• A sells something to B, and the transaction is finished.





• Gift Giving and Christmas in America• In American society,

the ritual of Christmas shopping provides a way to convert impersonal commodities into gifts that show one’s love for family members and close friends.





• Identity Struggles: interactions in which there is a discrepancy between the identity a person claims to possess and the identity attributed to him or her by others.

6.5 How Do Individuals Defend Their Identities When They Are Threatened?




• Making Moka in Papua New Guinea•For the Melpa, who live around Mt. Hagen in Papua

New Guinea, the most important identity is that of Big Man.

•The greatest skill required of a Big Man is making moka.

•Moka is a form of ceremonial gift exchange in which a man makes an initial gift to a trading partner and then receives in return more than he gave.





•The purposes of such ceremonial gift-giving: 1. They establish and maintain links between individuals

and groups.2. They establish a rank system that enables men to earn

status and prestige and become Big Men.





• In a study among high school girls, anthropologist Mimi Nichter discovered the relationship between self-image and body shape for female adolescents.

• Her survey revealed that 24% of girls in her study were thinking about their bodies all of the time and 31% were thinking of it much of the time.

Case Study: Fat Talk




•Adolescents interviewed by Nichter expressed their concern with body image with what Nichter labeled “fat talk.”

•Fat talk characteristically began with a statement such as “I’m so fat,” to which others would respond “No, you’re not.”

•Fat talk is a way for girls to express solidarity with each other, show that they have common concerns, and build consensus among the group.





• The reasons people are getting fatter are complex, but it has something to do with the need of the food industry to grow.

• It may also be a consequence of an increase in processed foods (more profitable.), and a function of declining exercise levels due to sedentary jobs.





• In what ways do American Christmas gift giving customs resemble the customs of the Trobriand Islanders and the Papua New Guineans? Give examples from each group.

• What roles do symbols play in these exchanges?

Discussion Questions:



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