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Social Constrrrctions of Self 21

Today, conceptualization of "the other" must be broadened beyond any


modern, Western self-claims to ahistoric, universal objectivity to include
other concepts of self wfth their difkrent worlds of meanings, Such a cm-
ative, nonoppressive relation to the other is a necessary condition for our
own dynamic process of self-constitution, freedom, and development.
For those of us in rhe modem, technological, industrialized West, conlplex
nonoppressive encounrers with orher concepts of self can reveal new worlds
of meaning: new ways of freeing our imaginations and of being more in
touch with our emotions; of experiencing nature and ehc cosmos; of relating
to death, time, and history; of understanding the myths and syinbols often
already influencing us; in short, new ways of understanding and creating our
own selves and our relations to others,
This process of self-constitution, dependent on providing culturally di-
verse contexts for creative encounters with worlds of meaning of "the
otherm-including the disempowerc.d and dispossessed, the oppressed and
exploited, those on the "periphery," workers, women, gays and lesbians, and
people of color-applies not only to cultures of the West. Indeed, the con-
structions of ""archaic," Hindu, Buddhist, and other non-Wstern texts arc
also nor free from class, caste, gender, race, and other relations of power.
Thus it is important that many contemporary scholars in India, for example,
are focusing on culturatly defined self-identities ut' subdltems, women, peas-
ants, tribals, and dalits (meaning "the oppressed ones" or the "downtrod-
den" Wntouchablcs),
By establishing creative encounters with other," including other cul-
tural creations and concepts of self usually excluded o r unrecognized by
dominant Western and Eastern traditions, we creatc the possibiIity for in-
creasing our sensitiviry and rtwareness, overcoming some of uur provincial-
ism, "bursting open" our historically and culturally imposed limitations on
what is valuable, significant, and even possible, and reconstituting new views
of self.

Concluding Observations
People who have heard some of the foregoing analysis have found it sugges-
tive, thought-provoking, and creative, but also somewhat confusing. They
have asked, Just where does this lcavc us? What precisely am I rtctempting to
do is1 these formulations?
To the question of whether I am concerned with a metaphysical question
of the nature of the self or with "what pecapte have in their beads," I have re-
sponded that I am more inrerested in the latter---namely, with views of self
that are assumed and sactalized, that lie at the foundation of our economic
and political systems and our views of human namre, h e I also d o not want
to draw a simple, sharp dichotomy, since I've tried to show that "what peo-

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