D.

THE
ANTHROPOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE OF SELF
Estela I. Borja
Saint Louis College, San Fernando City
La Union
 Anthropology
It deals with the study of culture - the
components, characteristics, functions,
modes and adaptation of culture as well as
cultural values and practices.
A. Physical Anthropology=seeks to
understand two things.
1. The emergence of humans and their
evolution later. (human paleontology)
2. How and why contemporary human
populations vary biologically (human
variation)
 It attempts to understand both primitive and
modern cultures by studying physical traits like:
-shape and size of skulls
- artifacts (e.g., pottery, weapons, utensils, tools)
- genetic mutations of human and nonhuman
forms
B. Cultural Anthropology-the work of social or
cultural anthropologists is very similar to that of
sociologists.
Concerned with:
- social institutions
- pattern of organization
- other aspects of society
 Branches of Cultural Anthropology
1. Archaeology - seeks to reconstruct the daily life and
customs of people who lived in the past
- trace cultural changes in societies
- offer possible explanations to those changes
2. Anthropological Linguistics - seeks to study:
- how languages change over time and how they may be
related (historical linguistics)
- how contemporary languages differ (structural
linguistics)
- how language is used in actual speech (sociolinguistics)
3. Ethnology- seeks to understand how and why peoples
today and in ancient past differ in their customary ways of
thinking and acting.
3. Ethnology- seeks to understand how and why
peoples today and in ancient past differ in their
customary ways of thinking and acting.
Differences between Anthropology and Sociology
Coverage of studies
Anthropologists generally study a society as a whole.
Sociologists concentrate on one aspect of society.
Methods
Anthropologists often live in the community they are
studying so that they can observe behavior directly.
Sociologists more likely rely on statistics, surveys,
secondary data
CULTURE is “a
historically transmitted
pattern of meanings
embodied in symbols, a
system of inherited
conceptions expressed in
symbolic forms
by means of which men
communicate, perpetuate,
and develop their
knowledge about their
attitudes toward life”
(Geertz 1973d:89).
 “Embodiment”
formulated by the
anthropologist that
describes both an
attitude of our body to
incorporate
techniques and social
devices, and a creative
vocation to invent and
incorporate new and
Thomas different expressive
Csordas operative ways.
EMBODIMENT-the TEXT-
BODY
Something that you have
to read…parts, process,
experience,
movements,etc.
Anthropological Concept of the SELF:
The self is both biological and cultural entity.
The self is an animal specie which underwent
the process of biological evolution and have
shared characteristics with other living
animals, the hominids, in particular.
The self evolved from apes some 33 million
years ago and in the evolutionary process
the traced his/her origin from hominid
species HOMO SAPIENS. Since the self has
better development in terms of brain billion
neurons and adaptation to the environment
for survival, the self develop a culture
resulting in behavioral changes
The self is a living animal but superior to other animals
because:
Physical aspects:
The self is the only animal that has larger brain capacity
making him/her a rational animal.
The self is the only animal that can stand straight
allowing him/her to have better mobility in doing
things.
The self is the only animal that can rotate arms freely
and have free fingers movement allowing him/her to
manipulate/do things easily.
Social aspects:
•The self is the animal that use language and symbol in
dynamic, complicated and yet systematic manner
allowing him/her to communicate, and preserve history,
knowledge, culture etc.
•The self is the only self that can cooperate with others
in a systematic manner in larger and larger cooperation.
•The self is the only self that invent new things because
of needs for survival. eiborja
slc, sfc, lu