Anthropology of the Self: The Individual in Cultural Perspective

Description

'The author demonstrates an impressive command of a wide range of literature' American Ethnologist Western society is individualised; we feel at ease talking about individuals and we study individual behaviour through psychology and psychoanalysis. Yet anthropology teaches us that an individual approach is only one of many ways of looking at ourselves. In this wide-ranging text Morris explores the origins, doctrines and conceptions of the self in Western, Asian and African societies passing though Greek philosophy, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confuscism, Tao and African philosophy and ending with contemporary feminism. Scholarly and written in a lucid style, free of jargon, this work is written from an anthropological perspective with an interdisciplinary approach. Morris emphasises the varying conceptions of the self found cross-culturally and contrasts these with the conceptions found in the Western intellectual traditions. Contents Introduction Greek Philosophy and Concepts of the Psyche (Soul) Buddhism and the Doctrine of No-Soul (Anatta) The Hindu Conception of the Self Taoism, Confucianism and the Chinese Self African Philosophy and Conceptions of the Person People as Social Beings: Conceptions of the Person in Oceania and lVlelanesia Feminist Philosophy and the Theory of the Self Conclusions Bibliography Index