Culture, the Individual, and Identity

Chapter Outline

 Perception
o Illusion
o Visuality: Learning to Look
 Cognition
o Cognitive Capacities and Intelligence
o Cognitive Style
o Reason and the Reasoning Process: Thinking
o Culture and Logic
 Emotion
o Emotion in an Eastern African Culture
 Motivation
o Socialization and Enculturation
 Personality/Self/Subjectivity
o The Presentation of Self
 Sex, Sexuality, and Gender Roles: The Creation of Subject Positions
o Sexuality, Gender, and Identity
o Cross-cultural Approaches to Sexuality
 Individual Psychology and Context

Key Points
1. Anthropologists have long been interested in the many ways individuals engage in cultural learn-
ing and how that learning is shaped by differences in status and experience. They have tried to
find out what all members of our species have in common, what features are limited to specific
groups of humans, and how individual uniqueness might be understood. In order to try and
understand how individuals perceive and make sense of their world, researchers have incorpo-
rated psychological theories into their studies. Anthropologists have tested universal assumptions
about human psychology in different cultural settings and many have found them to be problematic.

2. The field of psychological anthropology is complex and difficult to summarize, but it can be
grouped into four basic areas of human experience: perception, cognition, emotion, and
motivation. Research overwhelmingly sustains the view that human psychological processes

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 are open to a wide variety of influences. Psychological anthropologists typically concentrate on
areas where it is possible to identify relationships between biological (internal) and cultural (ex-
ternal) influences. One of the most promising approaches has come from developmental biol-
ogy: developmental systems theory (DST), which focuses on genetics as well as environmental
contributions to an organism’s development.

3. Human psychological perception always takes place in a cultural context. Researchers use con-
cepts such as schemas, prototypes, and shared, patterned, and easily understood experiences to
describe some of the ways in which meaning is mapped onto our experience. Classic research on
cross-cultural variations in perception showed that different responses to psychological tests de-
pended on the meanings that subjects brought to the testing situation. Alternative understandings
are possible because of the ambiguity of many perceptual signals, a phenomenon that is illustrated
in the study of visual illusions. As illustrated in Susan Vogel’s study of the Baule people of the
Ivory Coast, looking and seeing are culturally learned modes of sensory perception. She refers to
this interpretive process as visuality.

4. Human beings are active meaning-makers, striving to make sense of experiences; these processes
are a focus of anthropological studies of cognition. In early academic research, the cognitive
capacities of people were often tested in order to elucidate how people receive information from
the outside world and how they interpret that information in a way that makes an appropriate
action possible. Anthropologists, however, have been critical of so-called intelligence tests, as
studies have demonstrated that the tests are not useful when given to people who have a differ-
ent cultural background than the researcher. Today, it is unclear exactly what the results of
intelligence tests represent. Consequently, research has shifted its focus to cognitive processes
and the way they are organized into culturally shaped functional systems.

5. Some anthropologists argue that people in different cultures have different cognitive styles that
can be located on a continuum ranging from global style to articulated style. Research sug-
gests that the same individual may use a global style (viewing the world holistically as a large
bundle of relationships) for some tasks and an articulated style (seeing the world as broken up
into smaller pieces) for others. In everyday situations, the goal of cognition is not to solve a
problem by finding the single correct answer. Instead, people try to resolve dilemmas in a way
that allows them to get on with life.

6. Researchers have made several attempts to measure the levels of rational thinking in non-
Western populations, often by testing individuals using logical problems in syllogistic form.
Syllogistic reasoning in Western culture is considered to be the perfect example of rational
thought. It is important to keep in mind that rational thinking is not the same as logic. Formal
Western logic is better understood as a learned reasoning style characteristic of Western cul-
ture. Rules of Western logic can be useful, but other logics may be equally valid in other socie-
ties—or on other occasions in Western societies—when contextual factors are vital and must be
taken into consideration.

7. Emotions, like our thoughts, are not just something we have; they are culturally constructed
from our state of mind, our cultural interpretations, and our levels of bodily arousal. Different
cultures recognize different domains of experience and different categories of feeling as being
appropriate to these domains. Context and the subsequent interpretation of context are cultural-

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 ly influenced and strongly influence emotional experiences. For this reason, it is often difficult to
translate the language of emotion from one culture to another.

8. Our efforts to set and achieve goals are driven by our motivations. Anthropological approaches
to motivation have always embedded the sources of motivation within an ideal cultural matrix.
Finding the notion of “instinct” to be unhelpful, anthropologists have had greater success in
studying the culturally defined goals that people pursue in different societies.

9. The mainsprings of motivation are to be uncovered in the study of socialization and encultura-
tion. Humans must learn to pattern and adapt behaviour and ways of thinking and feeling to the
standards considered appropriate in their respective cultures. Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky
was interested in the wider social, cultural, and historical context in which face-to-face interaction
is embedded. Vygotsky’s concept of the zone of proximal development stresses that cognitive
development results from a dialogue. Children progress through that process at different rates
and in distinctive directions, depending on the amount and kind of coaching they receive from
others. This concept makes it possible to explain why people in different cultural subgroups are
socialized and enculturated in different ways.

10. Many Western psychologists and psychological anthropologists assumed that the mature self
was an independent entity with a clear sense of identity that persisted through time. Anthropol-
ogists working in non-Western societies, however, found that many cultures do not promote the
development of the self in the same way, preferring to speak of how in some cultures, individual
personality is integrated within a sociocultural matrix.

11. Different cultures conceptualize sex and gender roles differently. Sex is the conventional biolog-
ical distinction made between male and female based on observable sex characteristics, and
gender is the culturally constructed beliefs and behaviours considered culturally appropriate for
each sex. These roles greatly influence how individuals see themselves, how they define their
place within a social group, and how they are perceived by others. Individuals’ sexual practices
vary greatly—both within a single culture and between different cultures. Despite the develop-
ment of more inclusive conceptions of sexuality, which draws attention to the wide range of
possible identities, the ideology of heteronormativity is still pervasive. Heteronormativity is an
ideal that divides “appropriate” behaviour based in the narrow culturally defined categories of
“male” and “female,” “masculine” and “feminine.” Modern anthropological perspectives make
restrictive ideals, such as this, problematic.

12. The importance of context is central to understanding individual psychology. Not just the im-
mediate perceptible context, but also any displaced context of culture or history that may not be
visible, yet is still present in people’s habits of thought and feeling.

Key Terms

Agency An individual’s ability to make choices and to effect change through her or his actions.

Articulated style A field-independent way of viewing the world that breaks it up into small pieces,
which can then be organized into larger chunks.

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Bisexuality Sexual attraction to both males and females.

Cognition (1) The mental process by which human beings gain knowledge, and (2) the “nexus of
relations between the mind at work and the world in which it works.”

Cognitive style Recurring patterns of cognitive activity that characterize an individual’s perceptual
and intellectual activities.

Cultural persona The presentation of self in compliance with specific cultural models or patterns
of values and meanings.

Cultural synaesthesia A culturally shared response to a sense other than the one being stimulated
(e.g., hearing a sound and seeing it as a colour).

Elementary cognitive processes Mental tasks common to all humans without intellectual cogni-
tive impairment.

Emotion The product of entanglements connecting bodily arousal and cognitive interpretation.

Enculturation The process by which human beings living with one another must learn to come to
terms with the ways of thinking and feeling that are considered appropriate in their respective cul-
tures.

Functional cognitive systems Culturally linked sets of cognitive processes that guide perception,
conception, reason, and emotion.

Gay A self-designation for many individuals whose sexual orientation is toward members of the
same sex.

Gender The culturally constructed beliefs and behaviours considered appropriate for each sex.

Gender roles Sets of behaviours that are commonly perceived as masculine or feminine within a
specific culture.

Global style A field-dependent way of viewing the world that first sees it as a bundle of relation-
ships and only later sees the bits and pieces involved in these relationships.

Heteronormativity An ideology that promotes heterosexuality as the social ideal, supported by the
cultural definition of “appropriate” behaviour based on culturally defined categories of “male” and
“female,” “masculine” and “feminine.”

Homosexuality A term used to label individuals whose sexual orientation is toward members of
the same-sex as themselves.

Lesbian A term used to describe women whose sexual orientation is toward other women.

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Motivation The inner impulse to set (or accept) and accomplish goals.

Naturalizing discourses The deliberate representation of particular identities (e.g., caste, class,
race, ethnicity, and nationality) as if they were a result of biology or nature rather than history or cul-
ture, making them appear external and unchanging.

Norms Rules (usually unwritten) for behaviour assumed to be typical within a specific social or cul-
tural group.

Perception The processes by which people organize and experience information that is primarily of
sensory origin.

Personality The relative integration of an individual’s perceptions, motives, cognitions, and behav-
iours within a sociocultural matrix.

Prototypes Examples of a typical instance, element, relation, or experience within a culture.

Queer A self-identification claimed by some persons whose gender identities or sexual practices fall
outside of the range defined by the heterosexual – homosexual continuum.

Reasoning style Culture- and context-dependent ways in which we appraise, come to understand,
and think about a cognitive task.

Schemas Patterned, repetitive experiences that are shared and easily understood by members of a
particular culture.

Self The result of the process of socialization and enculturation for an individual.

Sex The conventional biological distinction between male and female based on morphological sex (the
appearance of external genitalia and observable secondary sex characteristics), gonadal sex (ovaries in
females; testes in males), and chromosomal sex (XX chromosomes or XY chromosomes).

Sexuality An individual’s sense of his or her own sexual orientation and preferences.

Socialization The process by which human beings learn to become members of a group, both by
interacting appropriately with others and by coping with the behavioural rules established by the
group.

Subject position An individual’s unique position in the world, which is shaped by social variables,
such as class, gender, and socioeconomic status.

Subjectivity An individual’s awareness of his or her own agency and position as a subject.

Syllogism A series of three statements on which the final statement (the conclusion) must follow
logically from the first two statements (the premise).

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Syllogistic reasoning A form of reasoning based on the syllogism.

Taxonomies Hierarchical systems that sort groups of things that share at least one quality (e.g.,
dogs) into subgroups that share a greater number of qualities (e.g., poodles, collies, boxers).

Thinking The active cognitive process of “going beyond the information given.”

Transgender One classification of individuals who, in one way or another, seem dissatisfied with
the sex and gender assignments they had received at birth.

Values Specific culturally defined principles of behavior.

Visuality The ways that individuals from different societies learn to interpret what they see and to
construct mental pictures using the visual practices that their own cultural system favours.

Zone of proximal development (ZPD) The difference between what an individual can achieve on
his or her own and what he or she can achieve under the guidance of more experienced individuals.

Review Questions
1. What is the relationship between culture and perception? How does this relate to the chapter on
language?

2. What is the relationship between culture and cognition? Is there a relationship between cognition
and perception? Between cognition and language?

3. How do anthropologists study psychological states? Are there any problems with this type of
anthropological inquiry? Why or why not?

4. Do some research and find out about the difference between a sociocentric view of self and an
egocentric view of self. In what type of culture or society are you most likely to find one or the
other? Which one do you identify with?

5. What is the nature/nurture debate? How does research on gender contribute to this debate?

6. What is the relationship between culture and sexuality? What does this suggest about human beings?

7. Do you think people in every culture would recognize the anthropological distinction between sex
and gender?

8. Are mental health and mental illness classifications culturally variable or uniform?

9. What is the value of psychological anthropology? Are there some concerns about it?

10. What are the different types of cognitive styles?

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11. What is the value of Vogel’s ideas about “visuality”?

12. Are there different ways of thinking about “seeing” in Canadian culture?

13. Think of an example of how the expression of emotion might differ in two distinct cultures.

Additional Resources

Films

 Discovering Psychology, “Past, Present, and Promise.” Directed by Ann Strunk and Kim Storey.
PBS. 1990.

This first episode of the Discovering Psychology documentary series gives an overview and introduc-
tion to the field of psychology.
[Link]

 Discovering Psychology, “Sensation and Perception.” Directed by Ann Strunk and Kim Storey. PBS.
1990.

This episode looks at the biology of perception and how the brain processes visual information.
[Link]

Annotated Video Links

 The anthropology of the brain: Roger Bartra author of anthropology of the brain summarizes his
work that brings together findings from anthropology and cognitive science offering an original
vision of the continuity between the brain and its symbolic environment.
[Link]

 Gender and Sex: An Introduction A short clear introduction that covers how the concepts of
sex and gender are used by most anthropologists.
[Link]

 Thailand Sex Tourism An interesting short film featuring good ethnographic content about the
nature of sex tourism in Thailand and its impact on women in that country.
[Link]

 Third Gender Examples A brief look at societies that acknowledge three or more gender catego-
ries as legitimate social positions.
[Link]

Cultural Anthropology: A Perspective on the Human Condition, Fourth Canadian Edition

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Websites

 Culture and Personality School, Department of Anthropology, University of Alabama

Background information on the Culture and Personality School, which emphasizes the cultural
moulding of the personality and focuses on the development of the individual.
[Link]

 Cognitive Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, University of Alabama

An overview of cognitive anthropology, the study of the relation between human culture and
human thought.
[Link]

 The Cultural Cognition Project at Yale Law School

This group conducts research on how “cultural values shape public risk perceptions and related
policy beliefs.”
[Link]

 Trauma and Global Health Program at McGill University

This international program conducts research into social violence and trauma and aims to pro-
vide relief and foster healing in communities struggling to cope with trauma. Reports, notes
from the field, and additional resources are available on the site.
[Link]

A Critical Look
BY ROBERTA ROBIN DODS

Malinowski and The Sexual Lives of Savages

In 1929, Bronislaw Malinowski’s The Sexual Life of Savages in North-Western Melanesia was published.
For its day, it was a rather startling book, even within the field of anthropology. Academics and
general readers alike considered the book’s detailed discussion of sexuality to be quite racy.
However, a close read of this ethnography gives us keen insights about the ways in which sex is
embedded in the culture of the Trobriand Islanders. Throughout the work, Malinowski’s
commitment to holism shines forth.

In the preface to the book, anthropologist Havelock Ellis notes that sex as an anthropological
subject has “always been veiled in mystery” (Malinowski 1929: vii). Ethnographic research on this
topic, he continues, could proceed only because sex taboos had lost some of their “stringency” at
the start of the twentieth century (x). Further, this sort of work required, in Ellis’s view, “a rare
combination of qualifications,” including:

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 1. access to scientific equipment,
2. familiarity with various new theories on the subject matter,
3. “long and intimate knowledge” of the people at the centre of the study,
4. “facility in the language,” and
5. openness toward behaviours and expressions that might seem strange to most Westerners (ix).

Ellis saw that Malinowski had not only these qualities, in a “rare degree,” but also patience in
observation and sympathetic insight. Here, then, we have an excellent list of the requirements for
the field anthropologist—background knowledge of the discipline and the peoples involved, ability
to learn foreign languages, openness and lack of ethnocentrism, patience, and sympathy.

In many ways, Malinowski was ahead of his time. After all, he was writing about sex more than
twenty years before Alfred Kinsey released his groundbreaking works Sexual Behaviour in the Human
Male (1948) and Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female (1953). Malinowski also emphasized Trobriand
women’s social power and equality in family life long before most Westerners wanted to become
aware of issues of women’s equality. Further, he approached two topics that remain somewhat taboo
for us still—sexuality in childhood, and sexuality in the later years of life.

Perhaps Malinowski’s most progressive—and at the time most controversial—contribution

came from his observations on the sexuality of children and adolescents. To begin with, he notes
that Trobriand parents allow their children freedom to engage with one another sexually. Indeed,
childhood play is often replaced by amorous adventures that are serious but do not necessarily lead
to permanent marriage arrangements. Children are emancipated from direct parental control at an
early age, at which time they move away from their families to form their own communities. In these
communities, they have plenty of opportunities “to receive instruction in erotic matters from their
companions” (55). Further, children often “hear of and witness much of the sexual life of their
elders” (54), making sex far less secretive and taboo than it is considered to be in Western cultures.
At the same time, “there is no interference by older persons in the sexual life of children,” as it is
“considered both improper and silly for an older man or woman to have sexual dealings with a
child” (59).

Malinowski’s attention to the sexuality of older members of societies was also quite progressive

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for its time. He describes the Trobrianders as considering sex to be a natural part of later life. Sadly,
anthropologists’ and other Westerners’ attention to older individuals’ experiences of sex and
sexuality remains largely inadequate. This is surprising if we consider how commonly sexual matters
are discussed in today’s media. Little of this discussion represents the sex life of the aging and the
elderly. When the topic is approached, it is often from a medical perspective, as is the case with
advertisements for erectile dysfunction drugs, personal lubricants, and sex-hormone replacement
therapy. Thus, once again we find that we can learn much from an open anthropological perspective,
and from the world views of people from cultures different from our own.

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