Anthropological View of Self

Group 2
Introduction
 Social Identities - relates to how we identify
ourselves in relation to others according to what
we have in common
 Tajfel (1979) – proposed that the groups which
people belonged to were an important source of
pride and self esteem.
Ex. Social class, family, football team etc.
 Identity is something people do in social
activities, not something they are.
Identity tool box
• It refers to the features of a person’s identity
that he or she chooses to emphasize in
constructing a social self
• Some characteristics such as kinship, gender, and
age are almost universally used to differentiate
people.
• Other characteristics figure prominently only in
some societies: ethnic group membership, skin
color, and wealth, for example.
Family Membership
• Families exist in all societies and they are part of
what makes us human.
• The most significant feature to determine a
person’s social identity.
• Also language can be an important identity
determinant which is an essential for the
maintenance of a group identity
 Family Membership

• In other societies, religious affiliation is an

important marker of group identity (Robbins,
2012)
• In Mindanao, being a Christian or a Muslim is
possibly the most important defining of one’s
social identity.
Personal Naming
• A universal practice with numerous cross
cultural variations.
• Establish birth right and social identity
• A name is an important device to individualize
a person,
• Legitimize him/her as a member of social
group as family
• Personal names are intimate marker of a
person that differentiate him/her from others.
• One’s identity is not inborn, it is continuously
develop in life.
Arnold van Gennep
• 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.
Arnold van Gennep
Three-phased rite of passage:
1.Separation phase– People detach from their former
identity to another.
2.Liminality phase– A person transitions from one
identity to another.
3.Incorporation phase– The change in one’s status is
officially incorporated.
Identity Struggles Anthony wallace

• characterized interaction
in which there is a
discrepancy between
identity a person claims
to possess and the
identity attributed to
that person by others. Raymond Fogelson
Identity Struggles

-individuals may also be confused in defining

their personal identity when there is a clash
between self-identification and inherited
collective identification emerging from the
cultural changes and conflicting norms and
values in the postmodern society
Golubovic (2011)

Suggest that in order to attain self-

identification, individuals have to overcome many
obstacles such as:
• Traditionally established habits; and
• Externally imposed self images
Illusion of Wholeness

Exhibits how individual selves throughout the

world continuously reconstitute themselves into
new selves in response to internal and external
stimuli
• The cohesiveness and continuity of self are only
illusory
Work on yourself

• Most important philosophical task of the

postmodern man today.
GROUP 2 AJA AJA TAYO!

Members

Cabigan, Lesly Anne

Elbo, Cariza Elline
Lazaga, Raven Karl
Kamatoy, Vince Jericho
Vicedo, Jerik Emmanuel
Madraga, Gio
Nipolo, Spencer Well