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CULTURE AND
EXPERIENCE
by

A. Irving Hallowell

WAVELAND

PRESS, INC.
Prospcct Heights, Illinois
Chapter 4 - Tib® S e l l and

Its Behavioral EuiwoMeiTi*

INTRODUCTION
Self-awareness as a Generic Human Trait.—One of the distinguish-
ing features of h u m a n adjustment, as compared with that of animals
lower in the evolutionary scale, rests upon the fact that the h u m a n adult,
in the course of ontogenetic development, has learned to discriminate
himself as an object in a world of objects other t h a n himself. Self-aware-
ness is a psychological constant, one basic facet of h u m a n nature and of
h u m a n personality. 1 As one psychologist has said, . . everyone, with
the possible exception of infants, some philosophers, and some psycho-
paths, is aware of one's self. 2
Self-awareness in m a n cannot be taken as an isolated psychological
phenomena, however, if we are to understand the full range a n d depth
of its h u m a n significance. For it is becoming increasingly apparent that
this peculiarly h u m a n phenomena is the focus of complex, and function-
ally dependent, sets of linguistic and cultural variables that enter into
the personal adjustment of h u m a n beings as members of particular so-
cieties. At the same time, it seems necessary to assume self-awareness as
one of the prerequisite psychological conditions f o r the functioning of
"any h u m a n social order, no matter w h a t linguistic and culture patterns
prevail'. If such be the case, the phenomena of self-awareness in our species
is as integral a part of a h u m a n sociocultural m o d e of a d a p t a t i o n as it
is of a distinctive h u m a n level of psychological structuralization.
It is likewise evident that, as one of the consequences of self-aware-
ness, m a n has reflected upon his own n a t u r e as well as the n a t u r e of
the world perceived as other than self. H e has been able, moreover, to
articulate and express through symbolic means explicit notions that em-
brace this polarity. T h u s ideas of this order in concrete and conceptual
form have become an intrinsic part of the cultural heritage of all h u m a n
societies. It is possible, therefore, to investigate concepts of the self and
its nature, as well as those linguistic a n d cultural variables that facilitate
the emergence of the self as a perceptible object. I n addition to investi-
gations that are oriented in a traditional psychological or psychiatric
' O r i g i n a l l y published as the first section of " T h e Self a n d I t s Behavioural E n v i r o n m e n t , "
Explorations, I I (April 1954).

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 I. CULTURE, P E R S O N A L I T Y , A N D E X P E R I E N C E : 4 . THE SELF A N D ÍTS B E H A V I O R A L E N V I R O N M E N T

frame of reference, concomitant inquiries oriented cross-culturally should to another and a considerable body of data was put on record. 5 But
widen as well as deepen our understanding of a distinctive h u m a n concepts of the soul were seen primarily in their relation to religion and
attribute. 3 magic rather than in a psychological frame of reference, relevant to the
T h e nature of the self, considered in its conceptual content, is a generic fact of man's self-awareness on the one hand, and the content of
culturally identifiable variable. Just as different peoples entertain various a culturally constituted self-image, on the other. 6 When Wissler 7 set forth
beliefs about the nature of the universe, they likewise differ in their ideas " what he called the "universal pattern of culture" the absence of any
about the nature of the self. And, just as we have discovered that notions concept of self in this pattern was not an oversight but a historically
about the nature of the beings and powers existent in the universe involve significant omission. Art, social organization, even war, were included,
assumptions that are directly relevant to an understanding of the behavior and, of course, religion. T h e implication is plain: Whereas concepts of
of the individual in a given society, we must likewise assume that the the deity, or other spiritual beings, are assumed without any question to
individual's self-image and his interpretation of his own experience be an integral part of man's characteristic cultural adjustment to life, the
cannot be divorced from the concept of the self that is characteristic of concepts that man entertains about his own nature, exemplified in con-
his society. For such concepts are the major means by which different cepts of self, appear not to deserve any emphasis at all, to say nothing
cultures promote self-orientation in the kind of meaningful terms that of an equal ranking with the other cultural categories included. 6 Subse-
make self-awareness of functional importance in the maintenance of a quently, Murdock 9 listed a more specific series of items which he described
human social order. In so far as the needs and goals of the individual are as "common denominators of culture." 1 0 saying, "they occur in every
at the level of self-awareness, they are structured with reference to the culture known to history or ethnology." It is interesting to note that while
kind of self-image that is consonant with other basic orientations that "soul concepts" are to be found in this list, self concepts are not. Tradi-
prepare the self for action in a culturally constituted world. In his dis- tional concepts of self, however, play the same kind of pragmatic role
cussion of " T h e Primitive World View," Redñeld points out that the in the psychological adjustment of the individual to his world as do other
concept of "world view" differs from culture, ethos, mode of thought, a n d classes of concepts and culturally derived means. Just as concepts of
national character. It implies "certain human universals." Among other spiritual beings, for example, help to structuralize the vital part of the
things, it assumes "that in every society all men are conscious of self. universe that is other than self and orient the. individual in cosmic per-
Self is the axis of world view. Everyone distinguishes himself from all spective, in the same way a concept of self not only facilitates self-orien-
else. . . tation'but enables the individual to comprehend the nature of his own
It is the picture [he says] the members of a society have of the properties a n d being arid, by inference, the nature of other selves with whom he interacts.
characters u p o n their stage of action. While "national character" refers to the ""Since* concepts of this category define the most typical and permanent
way these people look to the outsider looking in on them, "world v i e w " refers to attributes of a phenomenal class of objects among which the personal
the way the world looks to that people, looking out. Of all that is connoted b y
"culture," "world view" attends especially to the w a y a man, in a particular
self is included, their importance in any culture is obvious.
society, sees himself in relation to all else. It is the properties of existence as It is only within the last few decades, however, that anthropologists
distinguishd from and related to the self. It is, in short, a man's idea of the have manifested any vital interest in the relation between cultural varia-
universe. It is that organization of ideas w h i c h answers to a m a n the questions: bility, the psychological structure of the individual, and his differential
Where am I ? A m o n g w h o m d o I m o v e ? W h a t are my relations to things?'
behavior. There were also other obstacles which interfered with the
As I have pointed out elsewhere (Chap. 1), "As a result of self- development of any serious interest in questions focused upon such a
objectification human societies become social orders of conscious selves"; topic as the concept of self. O n e of these was the fact that a t various
and from this standpoint cultures are "elaborate systems of meaning times self-awareness has been minimized or even denied as an ob-
which . . . implement a type of adaptation which makes the role of servable phenomena among primitive peoples. This idea dates back half
the human being intelligible to himself with reference to an articulated a century or more to the period when the concept of evolution was the
universe and to his fellow men." guiding line for all thinking that concerned primitive peoples. At this
Historical Perspective.—Although man's self-awareness has long pro- period all sorts of attempts were made to differentiate the mind, the
vided philosophers with an intriguing problem for speculation and psy- thinking, or the mentality of "early" man or "primitive" peoples from
chologists have played fast and loose with it over several generations, "civilized" (European) peoples. One point of differentiation was made
anthropologists have paid comparatively little attention to the relevant to turn upon the status of self-awareness in the evolution of the human
ethnographic facts. It was recognized, of course, that concepts of the mind. Self-awareness was undeveloped in primitive man as compared
"soul" manifested considerable variability in content from one culture with civilized man. 1 1 This interpretation of certain ethnographic facts

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 I. CULTURE, P E R S O N A L I T Y , A N D E X P E R I E N C E :
4 . THE SELF A N D ITS B E H A V I O R A L E N V I R O N M E N T

still crops up, as for instance in the statement of H. Kelsen that " H a n d
Marian W. Smith read a paper on "Varying Concepts of Ego Exten-
in h a n d with the predominance of the emotional over the rational
sion," later published in Psychiatry,16 And now, in contrast with earlier
tendency in the soul of primitive man goes a remarkable lack of ego-
editions, the Outline of Cultural .Materials includes an item called "Ethno-
consciousness, a lack of any developed experience of his self." 12
psychology" 17 under which we find "concepts of the self, of hum an na-
Paul Radin in Primitive Man as Philosopher takes quite the opposite ture, of motivation, of personality," so that, in the future, we should
point of view. H e raises the question: "How does primitive man regard have more detailed inquiries into such topics.
the ego?" But he goes on to say, "Few ethnologists have ever at-
There is an additional reason anthropologists of an earlier generation
tempted to obtain from a native any systematized account of their own
could hardly have been expected to concern themselves with concepts
theory. It has, in fact, been generally contended that they have none.
of the self, except at a purely descriptive cross-cultural level. If they had
As a result our material consists of isolated statements on different aspects
turned to their psychological colleagues for enlightenment, the latter
of the Ego and we are perforce compelled to weld them into a consistent
would probably have discouraged, rather than encouraged, them. Despite
or inconsistent whole—as the case may be—in order to see their complete
the fact that William James had dealt with the "empirical self," and
bearings. This unfortunately cannot be helped."
there had emerged from the work of J. M. Baldwin, C. H. Cooley, and
In 1938 Marcel Mauss took as the subject of his Huxley lecture particularly G. H. Mead, the hypothesis that the self is a social product,
" U n e categorie de l'esprit humain: la notion de personne, celle de Sargent remarks that "between about 1910 and 1940 most psychologists
'moi.' " 1 4 H e points out that, while we have here "une de ees idees que preferred not to mention 'ego' or 'self' in their writings." 18 But following
nous croyons innées," an investigation is needed of how it was "lentement C. W. Allport's address to the Eastern Psychological Association in 1943
née et grandie au cours de longs siecles et á travers de nombreuses vicis- on " T h e Ego in Contemporary Psychology" this subject once again
situdes, tellement qu'elle est encore, aujourd'hui méme, flottante, délicate, emerged as completely reputable and has proved to be a topic of ex-
précieuse, et á élaborer davantage." While everyone finds "l'idée de panding interest in psychological circles. It is in some of the current
'personne,' l'idée du ' m o i ' " natural enough and, besides this, "au fond textbooks in social psychology as well as elsewhere that we find the most
de sa conscience, toute equipée au fond de la morale qui s'en deduit," at systematic discussions of the self.19
the same time "il s'agit de substituer a cette naive vue de son histoire, et
de son actuelle valeur, une vue plus précise." So far as psychoanalytic theories are concerned, it is of some historic
interest that it was only in the early 1920's that "Freud finally formulated
While Mauss excludes a psychological approach as irrelevant to his
a theory of the total personality, and the ego with its function of reality
immediate concern, he assumes that "il est évident, surtout pour nous,
testing became the Ego of the Ego, Superego and Id." 2 0 This shift in
qu 'il n'y a jamais en d'etre humain qui n'ait eu le sens, non seulement
interest from the libido to the activities of the ego was signalized by
de son corps, mais aussi de son individualité spirituelle et corporelle á la
the publication of The Ego and the Id. This occurred during the period
fois." W h a t interests Mauss is the concept of the self as "un sujet
when psychologists were still uninterested in questions relating to the
d'histoire sociale. Comment, au cours des siécles, a travers de nombreuses
self but when, on the other hand, some anthropologists were becoming
sociétés, s'est lentement élaboré, non pas le sens du 'moi,' mais la notion,
vitally interested in personality structure and its dynamics in relation
le concept que les hommes des divers temps s'en sont crées? Ce que le
to variability in cultural patterns. 2 1
veux vous montrer, c'est la série des formes que ce concept a revetues
Since the major purpose of this paper is to clear the ground for a
dans la vie des hommes des sociétés, d'apres leurs droits, leurs religions,
leurs coutumes, leurs structures sociales et leurs mentalités'.' Mauss charac- more effective handling of cross-cultural data that seem relevant to a
deeper understanding of the role of self-awareness in man as culturally
terizes his lecture as "un plan de travail." His discussion remains frag-
constituted in different societies, I am not directly concerned with ques-
amentary, but nevertheless suggestive, especially in regard to the need
tions of personality dynamics as such. T h e discussion is deliberately
for further historical elucidation of the concept of the self in Western
culture. couched at another level which, for want of a better term b u t without
implying too many theoretical implications, might best be called "phe-
More recently, a few anthropologists have become interested in the nomenological." What I wish to develop is a frame of reference by
self as a topic. Dorothy Lee has published the most sophisticated analysis means of which it may be possible to view the individual in another
of the concept of self among a nonliterate people yet to appear. H e r society in terms of the psychological perspective which his culture con-
approach, however, is essentially a linguistic analysis.15 At the meetings stitutes for him and which is the integral focus of his activities, rather
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science' (1949) than to content ourselves with the perspective of an outside observer
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who may even pride himself on his "objectivity." In this way I believe In this perspective we can seek answers to such questions as: By
we can also discern more clearly than otherwise some of the common what cultural means is self-awareness built up in different societies?
functions that all cultures play in building up and reinforcing self- How do individuals view themselves in terms of the self that they know?
awareness in the individual through certain basic orientations, despite W h a t are the cultural as well as the idiosyncratic factors in their self
wide differences in actual culture patterns. image? What is the time-span involved in the continuity of the self
Terminology.—Before going on to a discussion of the assumptions as culturally defined? W h a t relation is there between varying self con-
and hypotheses that underlie the frame of reference I have in mind, it cepts and differential behavior? W h a t is the relation of the self as cul-
will be necessary to say a few words about terminology. It is impossible turally constituted to the needs and goals of the individual as culturally
at the present time to escape entirely f r o m the dilemma presented by defined?
the absence of any standardized usage. The only way to cut this Gordian If it is possible to view the self as culturally constituted and known
knot is constantly to bear in mind the actual data that can be described to the individual in the same frame of reference as we view the culturally
on a phenomenological level (as, e.g., self-awareness, self-perception, constituted world in which the individual must act, this preliminary step
self-reference by means of language, self-conception). While some writers may enable us to apprehend with greater clarity both the essential role
use the terms "self" and "ego" as synonymous, others do not. I have of culture in relation to a generic h u m a n attribute and to define with
chosen the term "self" as more convenient for several reasons. In psycho- more precision some of the constant and variable factors that structur-
analytic usage "ego" is used to refer to one aspect of the total personality alize the psychological field of behavior for the individual in different
as construed in terms of an explicit theory of personality development societies.
and functioning. T o use this term in cross-cultural perspective would
be confusing since it could not possibly carry the same connotation. I GENERAL ASSUMPTIONS AND HYPOTHESES
believe it is best to reserve this term as well as "superego" for technical Self-awareness a Cultural as well as Social Product.—Awareness of
use in a psychodynamic context. Besides this, where both the terms "ego" self is not given at birth. "Like all other objects of experience, the self
and "self" are used by some writers, "self" is the more inclusive term. grows out of the matrix of indefiniteness which exists at the first per-
At the same time, "self" is not ordinarily used as a synonym for "the ceptual level. It comes gradually into being as the process of differentia-
total personality." This latter term, furthermore, has now assumed a tion goes on within the perceptual field. . . . T h e r e is also considerable
more or less sophisticated usage as p a r t of a technical psychological evidence to show that the body in all its forms is at first as strange,
vocabulary, however it may still be used in common speech. F r o m the as unfamiliar, as unorganized as are any other perceived objects. For
standpoint of cross-cultural inquiry it seems to me much better to make many months, much of it is not recognized as self." 22 But in the course
the concepts of "self" a point of departure, rather than concepts of of the socialization process self-awareness does eventually emerge so that,
"ego" or "personality." T h e term "self," in short, does seem to connote as M u r p h y says, "one of the most important things the child ever learns
a concept that remains closer to the phenomenological facts that reflect as a result of social contacts is that he is a person, a self." 23 Consequently,
man's self-awareness as a generic psychological attribute. It retains the there is a conceptual as well as a perceptual aspect of self-awareness to
reflexive connotation that is indicated when we say that a h u m a n in- be taken account of in the mature individual. Self-conceptualization in
dividual becomes an object to himself, that he identifies himself as an a significant meaningful form undoubtedly comes later 24 when, through
object among other objects in his world, that he can conceive himself mastery of speech and other aspects of his culture, the nature of the
not only as a whole b u t in terms of different parts, that he can converse self as culturally defined becomes an integral part of the implicit as-
with himself, a n d so on. Murphy's definition of the self as "the individual sumptions that become the basis for the activities of the individual and
as known to the individual" exemplifies this essential emphasis upon the the interpretation of his experience.
"reflexive mood." It is quite true, of course, that the self known to the T h e foregoing aspects of ontogenetic development in m a n are, of
individual may not represent a "true" picture from an objective point course, universal. And. since human experience occurs in a social milieu,
of view. But this assumes another perspective and indicates the point in the sense that intimate and continuing contacts with other human
at which technical constructs such as ego or superego are necessary in beings are the m a j o r sources which mediate the influences that moid
order to help make analysis intelligible in psychodynamic terms. In cross- the development of the child, the self has often been referred to as a
cultural perspective, on the other hand, and at the level of phenomen- "social product." It might be more accurately characterized as, also, a
ological description, the fact remains that h u m a n beings do function in cultural product. For the acquistion a n d use of a particular language, the
terms of concepts of self which, in part, are culturally derived. specific content that is given to an articulated world of objects that is

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built u p pari passu with self-awareness, a n d the integration of personal I believe that we must assume t h a t the functioning of any h u m a n society
experience with a concept of the nature of the self as traditionally viewed, is inconceivable without self-awareness, reinforced a n d constituted by
are a m o n g the necessary conditions that make possible the emergence traditional beliefs about the n a t u r e of the self.
and functioning of h u m a n awareness as a generic aspect of h u m a n per- This hypothesis receives support from the universal fact that, as
sonality structure. At the same time, such cultural constituents give compared with the societies of animals lower in the scale of organic
various colorings to this unique psychological attribute of man. evolution, any h u m a n society is not only a social order but a moral order
Furthermore, the preeminent role which cultural factors play in as well. A moral order being one that is characterized by the fact that
the experience of self-awareness in m a n highlights a corollary problem not only norms of conduct exist but organized or unorganized social sanc-
which only needs mention in passing. T h e cultural factors referred to tions to reinforce them, an inevitable conclusion must be d r a w n : the
are dependent, in turn, upon a mode of social living that requires the members of such an order are expected to assume moral responsibility for
functioning of complicated representative processes and the existence of their conduct. Such an assumption, in turn, implies self-awareness of
symbolic systems. (See C h a p . 1.) These mediate social and personal one's own conduct, self-appraisal of one's conduct with reference to
adjustment in a way that is only characteristic of man. Consequently, socially recognized standards of value, some volitional control of one's
it seems reasonable to infer that, among other primates and the lower own behavior, a possible choice of alternative lines of conduct, etc. As-
animals, not only the conditions that make self-conceptualization pos- sumptions like these, of course, cannot be made in the case of insect
sible are lacking but, in some animals, even those conditions which in societies, or the societies of i n f r a h u m a n primates. Without the develop-
the child (and possibly in some of the anthropoid apes) permit the ment of self-awareness as an intrinsic part of the socialization process,
rudiments of a body image to develop out of perceptual experience. As without a concept of self that permits attitudes directed towards the
Parr has pointed out, self as an object to emerge and crystallize, we would not have some of
A n a n i m a ! w i t h o u t a p p e n d a g e s cannot t o u c h himself and thus c a n n o t through
the essential conditions necessary for the functioning of a h u m a n society.
feeling b e c o m e a c q u a i n t e d with his own body. T h o u g h long, sinuous creatures Self-awareness is also basic to the discrimination and learning of the
such as snakes or eels—or long-necked ostriches and giraffes—can turn around multiple roles which are required of the individua! in h u m a n societies.
and see a large proportion of their bodies, a more rigid animal, like the mackeral, H e must have some awareness of his statuses in the social structure with
c a n n o t see itself at all. T h e r e are, of course, mirrors in nature and an animal
reference to sex, age, etc., in order to fit into the total patterns of social
m a y occasionally c h a n c e u p o n his reflection; yet he lacks the powers of d e d u c -
tion to realize that the reflection is a counterpart of himself. T h i s relative ignorance interaction that maintains the socio-economic system as a going concern.
of self has its social implications. H a v i n g no adequate concept of his own body, If he were not aware of his roles he would not be in a position to ap-
an animal c a n h a v e n o clear conviction that his associates are of his kind. H e praise his own conduct in terms of traditional values and social sanctions.
does not consciously recognize his c o m p a n i o n s or e v e n his offspring as being Cultural Definition of Subjective-Objective Dichotomy.—The psy-
"birds of a f e a t h e r " ; his m a t e mav be only a foreign object that has a special
allure.* 5 chological implications of the development of self-awareness cannot be
fully appreciated, however, without reference to a corollary fact of equal
For a differentiated sense of self-awareness to emerge it must be importance. This is the concomitant emergence in the socialization
possible for the individual to react to himself as an empirical object, to process of the awareness of a contrasting world of articulated objects,
identify himself a n d refer to himself in contradistinction to other selves experienced as "other-than-self." If this were not so, the h u m a n indi-
and things, to represent himself to himself, to appraise himself, a n d vidual would be destined to remain at an infantile stage of psychological
so on. Such reflexive processes imply a concept and the use of symbolic development. For this level is precisely one in which objects of an ex-
means of representation and reference. Unlike some of the lower verte- ternal world have not yet become clearly articulated in experience and
brates referred t o by Parr, the h u m a n individual through language a n d where the beginnings of ego-centered processes have not yet developed to
reflective t h o u g h t is able t o integrate perceptions of his own body a n d the point where the subject is able to perceive himself as an object in a
his personal experiences with a meaningful concept of self t h a t is the universe that likewise contains objects other than himself. A n d , just as
common property of other members of his society. cultural factors are constitutive in the development of self-awareness,
While common roots of a rudimentary sense of self-awareness that the structuralization of a world of objects other t h a n self becomes or-
lie at an unconscious level in man may be paralleled in some of the ganized, in part, in cultural terms. This is due to the fact t h a t percep-
higher apes it is only u n d e r the conditions characteristic of h u m a n tion in man, as is now more evident than ever before, does not present
adjustment t h a t self-awareness becomes differentiated and assumes a the h u m a n being with a "picture" of an "objective" world which, in all
functional importance in the maintenance of a social mode of life. For its attributes, is "there" only waiting to be perceived, completely un-
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affected by the experience, concepts, attitudes, needs, and purposes of Even in healthy waking life, the savage or barbarian has never learned to make
the perceiver. Perception is "never an absolute revelation of 'what is.' " 2 6 that rigid distinction [italics ours] between imagination and reality, to enforce
which is one of the main results of scientific education. Still less, w h e n disordered
O n the other hand, this does not imply any denial of the existence of an
in body and m i n d he sees around h i m p h a n t o m h u m a n forms, c a n he distrust
objectively definable order of phenomena existen daily extraneous to the the evidence of his very senses. T h u s it comes to pass that throughout the lower
h u m a n individual or even the human species. It has been stated, e.g., civilization m e n believe, with the most vivid and intense belief, in the objective
that "there is some perceptual level at which exists absolute objectivity; reality of the h u m a n spectres w h i c h they see in sickness, exhaustion, or excitement.
that is, a one-to-one correspondence between experience and reality." 27 W7hile even some early critics of Tylor, for instance Crawley, 31
But a satisfactory definition of this level for man as a whole is obscured found themselves unable fully to accept his statement, the major ground
by the fact that the psychological field in which huma n behavior takes for the objection rested on common sense. Man's very existence depends
place is always culturally constituted, in part, and human responses are on making some distinction between "objective" and "subjective." He
never reducible in their entirety to stimuli derived from an "objective" cannot nourish himself in a dream world. While this is true enough,
or surrounding world of objects in the physical or geographical sense. the issue remains oversimplified if we leave it there. For this common-
For the world of h u m an awareness is mediated by various symbolic de- sense answer itself assumes that there must of necessity be some easily
vices which, through the learning and experience of individuals, estab-
recognized, if not sharply definable, "line" that differentiates the polar
lish the concepts, discriminations, classificatorv patterns, and attitudes
categories at issue. But it is the precise locus of this "line" that presents
by means of which perceptual experience is personally integrated. In this
a problem that has not even been satisfactorily settled by philosophers
way assumptions about the nature of the universe become, as it were,
or psychologists. 32
a priori constituents in the perceptual process itself. Language, of course,
plays a major role both in terms of its structural characteristics as well If we take a fresh look at the ethnographic data it is quite true
as of the potentialities inherent in narrative discourse (myths, tales, that the line between what we call objectivity-subjectivity may appear
anecdotes) for the symbolic presentation of events. T h e graphic and somewhat blurred. This is partly due to the fact that subjectivity-objec-
plastic arts may likewise reinforce the same order through visual repre- tivity cannot be adequately conceived in simple "linear" terms, but only
sentation. 28 with reference to the total pattern of the psychological field. T h e "line"
that we think should always be drawn precisely "here" may not be drawn
If we accept the hypothesis that awareness of self as an empirical
sharply at all, although it may appear somewhere else as a recognizable
object and awareness of objects other than self are a coordinate result
boundary. I believe that the basic principle involved has been stated by
of maturation and socialization in man and that both involve cultural MacLeod. He points out that "subjectivity and objectivity are properties
constitutents, then we can go a step farther. This categorical distinction,
of an organized perceptual field in which points of reference are selves
and the polarity it imphes, becomes one of the fundamental axes along
(subjects) and objects, a n d the degree of articulation in this dimension
which the psychological field of the h u ma n individual is structured for
may vary greatly." In our discussion here the "degree of articulation"
action in every culture. This phenomenon may be thought of as generic.
in self-object relations may be construed in terms of a structure and
Where differential cultural factors enter the picture is in the varied
content definable by reference to the cultural factors directly relevant
patterns which the environmental field may take when viewed from
to the psychological field of the individual. By thus approaching the mat-
the standpoint of the self. Since the self is also partly a cultural product,
ter we can apprehend the actual behavioral environment of the self.
the field of behavior that is appropriate for the activities of particular
Instead of making any a priori distinction between "subjectivity" and
selves in their world of culturally defined objects is not by any means
"objectivity" a matter of primary concern, on the assumption that data
precisely coordinate with any absolute polarity of subjectivity—objec-
assignable to such categories are readily separable in the experience of
tivity that is definable.
individuals in other cultures, it will be assumed that, in so far as such
Failure to recognize this fact appears to be the main reason some a distinction has a meaningful character, it will receive a varying
of the descriptive data on nonliterate peoples have, from the time of emphasis that is only intelligible in terms of the total patterning of the
Tylor on, frequently been interpreted as an indication that they were behavioral field of the individual. For it must not be forgotten that the
unable to distinguish clearly between the "subjective" and the "objective." empirical self and the empirical world of surrounding objects have both
In the Early History of Mankind, Tylor, for example, spoke of the life emerged out of a common process of maturation, socialization, and
of primitive man as resembling "a long dream." 2 9 And in his Primitive personal experience. An intelligible behavioral environment has been
Culture30 he generalizes, constituted for the individual that bears an intimate relation to the

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I. CULTURE, P E R S O N A L I T Y , A N D EXPERIENCE:

of philosophers taught and most men believed that the world was
kind of being he knows himself to be a n d it is in this behavioral environ-
ment t h a t he is motivated to act. animate. It lived and flourished as did m a n , and like man, was suscept-
ible of decay, even of death." It was only during the seventeenth century
The Behavioral Environment of Man.—The concept of behavioral that "this conception gave way to the idea of the world as mechanism—
environment must be clearly distinguished f r o m a concept of environ- a world machine, no longer animate, but mechanically responsive to
ment construed as being "external" to the individual, with properties the 'laws of Nature.' " 3 5 Consequently, while the "objective" properties
that are definable independently of the selectively determined responses of " n a t u r a l " objects upon which we are accustomed to center our scien-
that the socialization process in man always imposes. T h e "objective," tific attention may be equally perceptible in certain respects to individ-
"geographical," or "physical" environment as thus conceived stands in uals whose behavioral environment is structured differently f r o m ours,
contrast to the behavioral environment. 3 3 I t has a limited usefulness even at the same time such properties may be much less salient for them.
in the observation of animals at the subhuman level. O n the other hand, Evidence from h u m a n cultures everywhere also indicates t h a t m a n
the concept of behavioral environment takes account of the properties tvpically responds to objects in his behavioral environment that to the
and adaptational needs of the organism in interaction with the external "sophisticated mind are symbolically constituted, i.e., spiritual beings of
world as constituting the actual behavioral field in terms of which the "various classes. Such objects, in some way experienced, clearly concep-
activities of the animal are more thoroughly intelligible. Capacity or tualized and reified, may occupy a high rank in the behavioral environ-
incapacity for color vision, for instance, defines an aspect of the be- ment although from a sophisticated Western point of view they are
havioral environment that may radically differentiate one species from sharply distinguishable from the natural objects of the physical en-
a n o t h e r irrespective of the properties of an external world described vironment. However, the nature of such objects is no more fictitious,
"objectively." T h e order of psychological reality in which the animal in a psychological sense, than the concept of the self. Consequently,
acts is, in the first instance, a function of its organic properties as m u c h culturally reified objects in the behavioral environment may have func-
as it is a function of the properties of the objective environment as they tions that can be shown to be directly related to the needs, motivations,
impinge on the organism. This is why G. H . Mead 3 4 insisted long ago and goals of the self. Symbolically represented, such objects are integral
t h a t t h e organism "determines t h e invironment . . . t h e organism, then, parts of the psychological field of the individual a n d must be considered
is in a sense responsible for its environment."
as relevant variables because they can be shown to affect actual behavior. 3 6
T h i s is eminently true both of m a n in his unique potentialities as Consequently, I believe it both preferable a n d clarifying for us to
an organic species, a n d of the differential behavioral environments that speak of the environment in which m a n lives as a "culturally constituted
are created for h u m a n individuals reared in different cultural settings. behavioral environment," r a t h e r than to say that m a n lives in a "social"
H u m a n a d j u s t m e n t , on the whole, cannot be simply explained as re- or "cultural" environment, without f u r t h e r analysis. This is particularly
sponses engendered by factors attributable to a physical environment the case if we seek for deeper behavioral understanding. It is of con-
constituted for the individual in the socialization process. It may even be siderable importance in this connection to note that the same assumptions
a r g u e d t h a t h u m a n potentialities a n d a cultural m o d e of life preclude that have invalidated the usefulness of the concept of "objective" or
any reductive interpretations focused upon the outside physical world "physical" environment find their logical parallels in the naive use of
alone. Even the "natural resources" of any h u m a n society become con- such terms as "social" or "cultural" environment. For it is likewise
stituted as "resources" only when, in a particular culture, the knowledge ^ assumed that a social or cultural environment can be defined in terms
and technology necessary for their exploitation is developed. T h e saine of properties or structures that are, in the first instance, conceived
principle applies to classes of objects such as the "heavenly bodies" that independently of the individuals they are said to environ. W i t h o u t f u r t h e r
we label as " n a t u r a l " a n d which, following scientific procedures of analysis it is implied, if not explicitly stated, that this environment, as
observation, we find located in physical space and subject to mechanical described by some objective observer, is the actual environment to which
laws. But the sun, moon, thunder, wind are not " n a t u r a l " p h e n o m e n a the individual responds. T h i s leads to what M a c L e o d has called the
in this sense in the culturally constituted behavioral environment of all "sociological bias" which, he points out, is somewhat analagous to the
peoples. O u r contemporary categorization is derived f r o m highly special- "stimulus-receptor bias" t h a t once prevailed widely in the study of
ized scientific investigations a n d a mode of reasoning that is typical perception:
only of recent phases of Western culture. I t is sometimes forgotten in This bias in its most c o m m o n form involves the a c c e p t a n c e of the structures and
c o m p a r i n g other cultures with our own that, " F r o m the time of Thales processes of society as defined by the sociologist as the true coordinates for the
d o w n t h r o u g h the period we broadly call 'the Renaissance,' a majority specification of behavior and experience. F r o m this point of view, e.g., the church

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or the political party in w h i c h the individual possesses membership, is regarded of another. More specifically, viewing a culture from the "inside" can
as an institution of society, possessing the manifold properties and functions best be achieved if we organize our data in a manner that permits us,
w h i c h a m a n y - s i d e d sociological investigation reveals, rather than as the church
or political party as it is apprehended and reacted to by the individual. T h e
as far as possible, to assume the outlook of the self in its behavioral en-
process of social adjustment, of socialization or of attitude formation thus be- vironment.
comes d e f i n ed in terms of a set of norms which have reality for the scientific
observer, b u t not necessarily for the individual concerned." BASIC O R I E N T A T I O N S P R O V I D E D BY C U L T U R E
T h e traditional approach of cultural anthropology, having as one From this standpoint culture may be said to play a constitutive
of its primary goals a reliable account of differential modes of life found role in the psychological adjustment of the individual to his world. T h e
among the peoples of the world, has not been directly concerned with human individual must be provided with certain basic orientations in
the behavior of individuals. It has been culture-centered, rather than order to act intelligibly in the world he apprehends. Such orientations
behavior-centered. In consequence, it has been found convenient to or- are basic in the sense that they are peculiar to a h u m a n level of ad-
ganize the presentation of the descriptive ethnographic data collected justment. They all appear to revolve around man's capacity for seif-
in terms of a more or less conventional series of topics (language, re- awareness. If it be assumed that the functioning of human societies
ligion, technology, social organization, etc.). No matter how reliable depends in some way upon this psychological fact, it is not difficult to
such data are, or whatever their value for comparative and analytic understand why all human cultures must provide the individual with
studies of culture, of necessity the material is presented from the stand- basic orientations that are among the necessary conditions for the de-
point of an outside observer. Presented to us in this form, these cultural velopment, reinforcement, and effective functioning of self-awareness.
data do not easily permit us to apprehend, in an integral fashion, the It is these orientations that may be said to structure the core of the
most significant and meaningful aspects of the world of the individual behavioral environment of the self in any culture. Whereas cultural
as experienced by him and in terms of which he thinks, is motivated means and content may vary widely, common instrumental functions
to act, and satisfies his needs. T h e language of a people, as objectively can be discerned.
described and analyzed in terms of its formal categories, is not the lan- Self-Orientation.—Animals below man, for instance, even though
guage that exists for the individual who uses it as a means of com- they may be highly capable of acting in a complex behavioral environ-
munication, in reflective thought, as a mode of verbal self-expression. ment that includes many classes of objects other than themselves, in-
H e may, indeed, be quite unconscious of its objective characteristics. cluding other animals of their species, do not have to become self-
It is an integral part of himself a n d his world. It is neither "objective" oriented in order to function adequately in a social group. O n the other
nor "subjective." T h e same holds true, in principle, for other cultural hand, one of the common functions of culture is to provide various
phenomena when viewed from the standpoint of the individual within means of self-orientation for the human being.
his cultural setting. Because culture can be objectively described a n d It is quite generally recognized that language plays an essential
for certain purposes treated as if it were a sui generis phenomenon, it role in this self-orientation. But only certain features of language have
is sometimes implied, or even argued, that it is in fact phenomenologic- been emphasized, to the exclusion of others, while the generic function
ally autonomous. 3 8 T o do so is to misunderstand totally the basic con- of all languages in providing linguistic means of self-orientation has
ditions of h u m a n psychological adjustment. Any inner-outer dichotomy, not been sufficiently stressed.
with the h u m a n skin as a boundary, is psychologically irrelevant. As Despite wide variations in linguistic structure Boas called attention
Murray points out, with reference to this problem considered onto- years ago to the fact that "the three personal pronouns—I, thou, and
genetically—"much of what is now inside the organism was once outside. he—occur in all h u m a n languages" and emphasized that " t h e underlying
For these reasons, the organism and its milieu must be considered to- idea of these pronouns is the clear distinction between the self as speaker,
gether, a single creature—environment interaction being a convenient the person or object spoken to, and that spoken of." 40 If this be ac-
short unit for psychology." 39 cepted, we have a n unequivocal indication that languages all have a
T h e concept of behavioral environment enables us to take cognizaricc common sociopsychological function. They provide the h u m a n individ-
of this fact, to appraise and reorder culturally given data to bring inco ual with a linguistic means of self-other orientation in all contexts of
focus the actual structure of the psychological field of the individual. interpersonal verbal communication. A personal existence and sphere
At the same time it enables us to approximate more closely to an "inside" of action is defined as a fundamental reference point.
view of a culture, the kind of naive orientation we unconsciously assume Although we d o not have parallel investigations in other societies,
towards our own culture, but which is so difficult to achieve in the case in Western culture we have had a number of studies which indicate

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the mastery of our system of personal and possessive pronouns at a very such phenomena do not exist. It also has been found that too rigid
early age. According to Gesell, for example, the child begins to use a priori definitions and concepts, consciously or unconsciously modeled
self-reference words—mine, me, you, and I, in that order—at two years, after those of our own intellectual tradition, may even lead to a denial
whereas at eighteen-months self and "not self" are not clearly differ- that comparable phenomena exist in other cultures, only because the
entiated. 4 1 phenomena observed fail to meet all the requirements of the definitions
As compared with the mastery of a pronominal system we know and concepts employed by the observer. I n any case, we must not expect
very little about the acquisition and use of kinship terms in ontogenetic to find concepts of the self among nonliterate peoples clearly articulated
perspective. In many nonliterate societies such terms are among the for us. T o a certain extent it is necessary to approach the whole subject
major linguistic means that orient the individual in a self-other dimen- naively, to pursue it obliquely from different angles, to attack the con-
sion in relation to his roles in the social order. ceptual core of the problem in terms of its pragmatic implications and
Then there is the universal phenomenon of personal names. These in the full light of related concepts in a single cultural matrix. We already
are related to self-orientation in so far as they are personal and serve know from available data, for instance, that such concepts as reincarna-
as a linguistic device for self-identification and unequivocal indentifica- tion, metamorphosis, and the notion that under certain circumstances
tion of the self by others. The fact that in some cultures the individual the "soul" may leave the body, must be relevant to variations in the
knows his name although it may not be customary for him to use it self-image which different peoples have. But we know much less about
freely for self-identification indicates the need for more detailed studies the way in which such concepts become psychologically significant for
of the variable aspect of personal naming in relation to self-orientation. the individual in relation to his motivations, goals, and life adjustment.
But the ubiquitous fact of personal naming must be considered to be
Object Orientation.—A second function of all cultures is the orien-
in the same functional category as the pronominal pattern. 4 2
tation of the self to a diversified world of objects in its behavioral en-
In this connection it would also be interesting to know more about
vironment, discriminated, classified, and conceptualized with respect
the role which personal names play in the sexual orientation of the self.
to attributes which are culturally constituted and symbolically mediated
Certainly in many cultures—although how widespread the custom is
through language. The role of language in object-orientation is as vital
I do not know—the panel of names available for boys is not the same
as for girls. Names are sex-linked. Under these circumstances, knowing as in self-orientation. T h e late Ernst Cassirer laid special emphasis upon
this point. "Language," he said, "does not enter a world of completed
one's own name is equivalent to knowing one's own sex. Awareness of
objective perceptions only to add to individually given and clearly de-
one's sexual status is likewise implied in the use of certain kinship terms
in many cultures, so that, in acquiring the proper use of kinship terms, limited objects, one in relation to the other, 'names' which will be
the child likewise becomes sexually oriented. There are other aspects purely external and arbitrary signs; rather, it is itself a mediator in
the formation of objects. It is, in a sense, the mediator par excellence,
of language that should be considered in relation to self-orientation,
but these illustrations must suffice. 43 the most important and most precise instrument for the conquest and
the construction of a true world of objects." 45 It is this objectifying
Whatever the idiosyncratic content of the self-image may be and
function of speech that enables man to live and act in an articulated
whatever weight it may be given in psvchodynamic analysis, the content
world of objects that is psychologically incomparable with that of any
of the self-image is, in part, a culturally constituted variable. 44 While
other creature.
one of the constant functions of all cultures therefore is to provide a
concept of self along with other means that promote self-orientation, Object orientation likewise provides the ground for an intelligible
the individuals of a given society are self-oriented in terms of a pro- interpretation of events in the behavioral environment on the basis of
vincial content of the self-image. traditional assumptions regarding the nature and attributes of the objects
This by no means implies that we should expect to find a single involved, and implicit or explicit dogmas regarding the "causes" of
linguistic term or a concept even roughly equivalent to "self," "ego," events. A cosmic and metaphysical orientation of the self supplies a
or "soul" in all cultures. The absence of anv such single term and the conceptual framework for action in an orderly rather than a chaotic
correlative fact that the self-image may present subtleties foreign to universe. It is not necessary, of course, that the individual be aware
our mode of thinking is one of the reasons such a topic, approached from of the underlying metaphysical principles involved, any more than it
outside a culture, poses inherent difficulties. On the other hand, there is necessary that he be aware of the grammatical principles of the
are analogies familiar to the anthropologist. Art, religion, and law, for language that he speaks. But the former are as open to investigation
example, have been investigated in societies in which abstract terms for as the latter. It is for this reason that considerable confusion has been

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created by the application of the natural-supernatural category to non- to identify himself and to define his position with reference to his be-
literate peoples in approaching their religion or world view. 46 This havior in a scheme of social relations, it likewise provides him with
dichotomy simply reflects the outcome of metaphysical speculation in the means for defining his position in a spatial f r a m e of reference that
latter-day thought in Western culture. Instead of assuming a priori transcends immediate perceptual experience. 50 Getting lost or becoming
that this dichotomy is really meaningful in other cultures, it might be spatially disoriented is apt to be an emotionally distressing situation for
more profitable to discover the metaphysical principles that actually an individual in any culture. T h e capacity to move freely and intelligently
exist. At any rate, if we assume the outlook of the self as culturally from place to place, to conceptualize the spatial location of one's des-
oriented in a behavioral environment with cosmic dimensions and im- tination, and to be able to reach it, as well as to be able to return back
plicit metaphysical principles, a great deal of what is ordinarily de- home, is a commonplace of everyday h u m a n living.
scribed as "religion" is seen to involve the attitudes, needs, goals, and Just as personal names mediate self-identification and personal ref-
affective experience of the self in interaction with certain classes of erence, in the same way names for places and significant topographical
objects in the behavioral environment. These classes of objects are features are a universal linguistic means for discriminating and repre-
typically other selves—spiritual beings, deities, ancestors. T h e relation senting stabilized points in space which enable the self to achieve
of the self to them may, indeed, be characterized by the same patterns spatial orientation. Place names become focal points in the organized
that apply to interpersonal relations with other human beings. In any directional schema made available to the individual through knowledge
case, the individual must be quite as aware of his status in relation and experience. Such stable points of reference are not only a guide
to other-than-human beings, as he is in relation to his human associates. to action, once known they can be mentally manipulated in relational
H e must learn to play his proper role in response to their roles as culturally terms at a more abstract level, as in maps for example. Place names
defined. likewise become integrated with the temporal orientation of the self.
In other words, the "social" relations of the self when considered For self-awareness implies that the individual not only knows where he
in its total behavioral environment may be far more inclusive than is, but where he was at some previous moment in time, or where he
ordinarily conceived. T h e self in its relations with other selves may tran- expects to be in the future. T h e identification of the self with a given
scend the boundaries of social life as objectively defined. 47 This is a fact locus—be it a dwelling, a camp, a village, or what not—also depends
of some psychological importance since it is relevant to the needs, upon the linguistic discrimination of place. Other selves, living or dead,
motivations, and goals of individuals under certain circumstances. At and selves of an other-than-human category likewise can be assigned
the same time, the social relations of the self in this more inclusive a characteristic spatial locale through the device of place-naming. Place-
sense may not be directly relevant in a sociological frame of reference naming is another common denominator of cultures.
where the aim of the observer is to define the lineaments of "social struc- Orientation in time is coordinate with spatial orientation and,
ture" in the usual sense. That is, the social structure, defined as a result however simple the means or crude the temporal intervals discriminated
of such an investigation, may not be the phenomenon apprehended by may be, the self is temporally as well as spatially oriented in all cultures.' 1
the self, nor represent the most salient aspects, for the individual, of Temporal disorientation is abnormal in any culture if judged in relation
the greater society of selves apprehended in the behavioral environment. to the traditional temporal schema. Of course, in a culture without
In some cultures the social orientation of the self may be so constituted names for days of the week self-orientation in time is not possible in
that relations with deceased ancestors or other-than-human selves become terms of this particular schema. On the other hand, if "moons" are named
much more crucial for an understanding of the most vital needs and it is assumed that the individual knows his "moons."
goals of the individual than do interpersonal relations with other human W h a t we know all too little about are the earliest phases of temporal
beings. orientation in the child—a sensed relationship of experienced events
Spatiotemporal Orientation.—Since the self must be prepared for in time—at a period before traditional cultural concepts are learned
action, a third basic orientation that all cultures must provide is some and consciously employed, and even before a concept of self is fully
kind of spatiotemporal 4 8 frame of reference. (For an extended discussion developed. L. K. Frank directed attention to this problem many years
of spatial and temporal orientation see Chaps. 9, 10, 11.) Animals have ago, indicating how what we have called motivational and normative
to find their way about in space, but they do not have to be oriented orientations became integrated with the beginnings of temporal orienta-
in an acquired schema that involves the conscious use of culturally tion a n d a growing sense of self at an early age:
constituted reference points and the awareness of one's position in Here t h e n begins the characteristically h u m a n career of m a n w h o , not content
space. 49 Just as a culture provides the means that enable the individual to be ruled by hunger and other physiological functions, transforms t h e m so that

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4 . THE SELF A N D ITS B E H A V I O R A L E N V I R O N M E N T

hunger becomes appetite, bladder a n d rectal pressures become occasions for

modesty, cleanliness, etc. and later sex becomes love. This transformation of naive hypothesis in view of the fact that self-identification would have no func-
behavior into conduct involves the acceptance of values, or, more specifically, tional value in the operation of a human social order if, at the same
necessitates value behavior and time perspectives wherein we see the individual time, it was not given a temporal dimension. Who I am, both to myself
responding to present, immediate situation-events (intra-organic or environ-
and others, would have no stability. It would make it impossible to
m e n t a l ) as point-events in a sequence the later or more remote c o m p o n e n t s of
which are the focus of that conduct. . . . If we let A represent one of the im- assume that patterns of interpersonal relations could operate in terms
mediately i m p i n g i n g situation-events facing an individual, either within his or- of a continuing personnel. From this standpoint, I believe it can be de-
ganism or in the environment, it is clear that A is the first of a sequence A , B, duced that psychopathological phenomena that affect the maintenance
• C, D. . . N. W h e n the infant responds naively to A (physiological n e e d ) by a of personal identity and continuity must of necessity be considered ab-
physiological process ( e v a c u a t i o n ) he behaves organically and directly. As train-
ing in toilet habits proceeds, he learns to recognize A (the internal pressure)
normal in any society. 63 For in order to play my designated roles I not
as a preparatory signal or behavior cue, not a stimulus to immediate releasing only have to be aware of who I am today, but be able to relate my past
behavior; the bladder pressure A n o w becomes the first term in a sequence A , B, actions to both past and future behavior. If I am unable to do this
C, D. . . N , leading to the appropriate later term N which may be the h o u s e h o l d there is no way I can assume moral responsibility for my conduct.
toilet. This response to A in terms of its consequences then becomes the proto-
I am not quite the same person today as I was yesterday if the continuity
type of value behavior with an almost infinite regression toward the future, for
again we see that N ( v o i d i n g at a specified place, in privacy, and k e e p i n g the of my experience is constricted through the impairment of memory or,
clothes dry) is itself a first term or A in another sequence of holding or earning as in the case of some individuals with "multiple" personalities, dif-
the m u c h n e e d e d security of parental approval and love and a wider social ferent sets of memory images become functional as a "new" personality
approval and acceptance by teachers, schoolmates, and so on. W h a t looks like manifests itself. Fugue states, in some instances, are unconsciously mo-
a simple, childish achievement of control and elimination assumes, upon re-
flection, a large significance for understanding h u m a n conduct a n d the question
tivated devices for breaking the sense of self-continuity, for disconnecting
of values within a time perspective. As will be realized the various time per- the self from past actions felt to be morally reprehensible.
spectives of a culture give the dimensions of the values that are operating in There is still another important aspect of the relation between the
the lives of those living in that culture by specifying the conduct that must be temporal orientation of the self and the maintenance of self-continuity.
cbserved in response to e a c h situation, wherein that immediate situation is to
be seen as instrumental to a more remote or deferred situation.' 2
This is the time-span of recalled experiences that become self-related.
Cultural variables are involved here. W h a t we find in certain instances
T h e deeper psychological implications of the relation between tem-
is this: not only is a continuity of self assumed, self-related experiences
poral orientation and the emergence and functioning of self-awareness
are given a retrospective temporal span that far transcends the limits
in the human being are nowhere more clearly apparent than in the integral
connections between memory processes and the development of a feeling beyond which we know reliable accounts of personal experience can be
of self-identity. This integral relation is one of the necessary conditions recalled. The earliest experiences of the hum an being cannot become self-
required if any sense of self-continuity is to become salient. H u m a n be- related and recalled as such because the infant has not yet become an
ings maintain awareness of self-continuity and personal identity in time object to himself, nor has he incorporated any working temporal schema
through the recall of past experiences that are identified with the self- which makes possible the differentiation of experiences of this period
image. If I cannot remember, or recall at will, experiences of an hour from later ones. Besides this, past experience as recalled implies a spatial
ago, or yesterday, or last year that I readily identify as my experiences, as well as a temporal frame of reference. Dudycha and Dudycha, as a
I cannot maintain an awareness of self-continuity in time. At the lowest result of systematic investigation, state that the "average earliest memory
functional level, however, recall neither implies volition nor any capacity is somewhere in the fourth year." 54 But one of my Ojibwa informants
to organize the memory images of past events in any temporal schema. referred to memories in his mother's womb (spatial locale), and he knew
Even if we should grant animals below man a very high capacity for when he would be born (consciousness of future time). 5 5
recall, without some symbolically based and culturally derived means, From modern observation, we also are aware of the distortion of
it would be impossible to organize what.is recalled in relation to a temporal early memories that can occur through repressive amnesia 56 and the
schema, on the one hand, and a self-image, on the other. Consequently, phenomena of pseudo-memory. O n e instance of the latter, in the form
in order for a sense of self-continuity to become a functionally significant of deja vue, turned up while I was collecting Rorschach protocols among
the Northern Ojibwa. Having been presented with Card I this subject
factor in self-awareness, the human individual must be temporally oriented
as well as self-oriented. If we wish to postulate a sense of self-continuity hesitated a long while before he would say anything at all. T h e n he went
into a long disquisition the main point of which involved the statement
as a generic h u man trait, a culturally constituted temporal orientation
that when he was a baby and still on a cradle board (i.e., long before
must be assumed as a necessary condition. This seems to be a reasonable
he was able to talk) he had once looked u p through the smoke hole of
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the wigwam and seen exactly what he now saw before him on the Ror- Dream experiences bécome integrated through the same kind of memory
schach card. process through which other experiences become self-related. But this inte-
Facts such as these indicate plainly enough that self-related experi- gration of experience from both sources does mean that the content
ence as recalled need not be true in order to be psychologically significant of self-related experiences may in different cultures assume qualitatively
for the individual or his associates. Since reliable knowledge regarding distinctive attributes.
the vagaries of memory is such a recent acquisition in our own culture, A dream of one of my Ojibwa informants will serve to document
it is easy to understand how, through the long span of human history, several of the foregoing points in a concrete form.
the door has been left wide open to varying emphases in different cul- As I was going about hunting, with my gun in my hand, I came to a lake. A
tures upon the nature and the time span of past experiences that can steep rock rose from the lake shore. I climbed up this rock to have a look across
be self-related. 67 Although less directly related to the self, there is the the lake. I thought I might sight a moose or some ducks. W h e n 1 glanced down
correlative problem of how far it is possible for any reliable knowledge towards the water's edge again, I saw a m a n standing by the rock. H e was
leaning on his paddle. A canoe was drawn up to the shore and in the stern
of past historical events to exist in communities of nonliterate peoples.
sat a woman. In front of her rested a cradle board with a baby in it. Over the
Events of the past, whether connected with the self or not, cannot assume baby's face was a piece of green mosquito netting. T h e man was a stranger to
conceptual reality unless they are incorporated in the psychological field me but I went up to him. I noticed that he h u n g his head in a strange way.
of present awareness. This is only made possible through symbolic means; H e said, "You arc the first m a n ( h u m a n being) ever to see me. 1 want you to
past events have to be represented in some fashion in order to become come and visit me.'' So I j u m p e d into this canoe. W h e n I looked d o w n I noticed
that it was all of one piece. T h e r e were n o ribs or anything of the sort, and
salient. Even though some temporal orientation that permits the order- there was no bark covering. (I do not know w h a t it was made of.)
ing of past events in sequence may exist, with no written records or other O n the northwest side of the lake there was a very high steep rock. T h e
checks, knowledge of such events can only be communicated through man headed directly for this rock. With one stroke of the paddle we were across
the recalled memories of individuals, 58 and the repetition of narratives the lake. T h e man threw his paddle down as we landed on a flat shelf of rock
almost level with the water. Behind this the rest of the rock rose steeply before
that embody these. And, just as retrospective self-related experience may us. But w h e n his paddle touched the rock this part o p e n e d up. H e pulled the
be culturally defined as reliable, even though it may date from' the womb canoe in and we entered a room in the rock. It was not dark there, although I
or earliest infancy, in the same way myth and legend may be accepted as could see no holes to let in any light. Before I sat d o w n the man said, "See,
"history." Thus a temporal dimension transcending the life-span of liv- there is my father and my mother." T h e hair of those old people w a s as white
ing individuals can be given to significant events that pertain to the life as a rabbit skin. I could not see a single black hair on their heads. After I had
seated myself I had a chance to look around. I was a m a z e d at all the articles
histories of mythological as well as human figures of importance in the I saw in the room—guns, knives, pans and other trade goods. Even the clothing
traditional belief of a people. these people wore must have come from a store. Yet I never remembered having
O n e common type of past experience that may become particularly seen this man at a trading post. I thought I w o u l d ask him, so I said. "You told
important when integrated with certain concepts of the nature of the me that 1 was the first h u m a n being you had seen. W h e r e , then, did you buy
all of these articles I see?" T o this he replied. ' H a v e you never heard people
self is dreaming. Once we recognize the fact that self-awareness is a talking about pagílcígan (sacrifices)? T h e s e articles were given to us. T h a t is
generic human trait, that a self-related experience of the past depends how we got them." T h e n he took me into another room and told m e to look
upon a memory process (recall) and that the human individual is at around. I saw the meat of all kinds of a n i m a l s — m o o s e , caribou, deer, ducks.
the same time exposed to some culturally constituted self-image, there I thought to myself, this man must be a wonderful hunter, if he has been able
to store up all this meat. I thought it very strange that this m a n had never
is nothing psychologically abstruse about the incorporation of dream ex-
met any other Indians in all his travels. Of course, I did not know that I was
perience into the category of self-related experiences. Self-awareness be- dreaming. Everything was the same as I had seen it w i t h my eyes open. W h e n
ing as phenomenally real in dreams as in waking life there is no inherent I was ready to go I got up and shook h a n d s with the man. H e said, "Anytime
discontinuity on this score. Assuming an autonomous soul separable from that you wish to see me, this is the place where you w i l l find me." H e did not
the body under certain conditions, as in sleep, it is possible to interpret offer to open the door for m e so I knew that I had to try and d o this myself.
I threw all the power of my mind into o p e n i n g it and the rock lifted up. T h e n
dream experiences as personal experiences, even though in retrospect I woke up and knew that it was a dream. It was one of the first I ever had. ( T h e
the experiences undergone by the self in this phase may far transcend narrator added that later he discovered a rocky e m i n e n c e on one of the branches
the self-related experiences of waking life in unusual spatial mobility, of the Berens River that corresponded exactly to the p l a c e he h a d visited in
or in other ways. This by no means implies, however, that the individual his dream.)
ignores or is unaware of any distinction between self-related experience My informant W. B. narrated this dream as the equivalent of many
when awake and when asleep.59 A sense of self-continuity conceptually other personal experiences he had told me about that were not dream
integrated with a self-image, provides the necessary connecting link. experiences. The phenomena] reality of self-awareness is as evident here as

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in his other narratives, but he distinguishes this narrative as a dream. a dream first. This is the significance that W.B. attributed to his dream
It is noteworthy, too, that the behavioral environment of the dreamer experience, although, being a Christian, he never took advantage of it
is spatially continuous with that of waking life. This is unequivocal, to become a manao (i.e., an Indian doctor who uses medicine obtained
not only because the narrator starts off by saying he was out hunting from mémengwéciwak).
and because the topographical features of the county conform to ordinary It would be possible to demonstrate from other dream material
experience, but particularly because of the comment in parentheses at how the horizon of self-related experience is enormously broadened
the very end. He recognized later when awake the exact spot he had through the integration of this kind of experience with that of waking
visited in the dream. H e could go back there at anytime in the future
life. The range of mobility of the self in space and time may likewise
and obtain the special kind of medicine that the mémengwéciwak, the
be extended throughout the limits of the behavioral environment. In the
beings h e met, are famous for. H a d he been a pagan, this is what he case of the Ojibwa, hum an beings share such mobility with the non-
would have done, he told me. For he received a special biessing—this human selves of their behavioral environment. (This will be illustrated
is the implication of what they told him on parting, and of the fact
in a later chapter, " T h e Ojibwa Self and Its Behavioral Environment.")
that he was able to "will himself out" of their rocky abode. The fact
Furthermore, the psychological fact that the individual actually does ex-
that W.B. thought he could act in the future with reference to a dream perience such phenomena (in dreams) is one of the main reasons
experience of the past shows an implied temporal continuity of the the events of mythological narrative can assume reality in the context
self in a behavioral environment with a unified spatiotemporal frame of the same behavioral environment. Experientially, the world of the
of reference for all self-related experience. T h e anthropomorphic charac- self and the world of myth are continuous. How far this is actually the
ters that appear in the dream are of particular interest because they are case in any culture is, I believe, open to empirical investigation.
not h u m a n {anicinábek), yet they are well-known inhabitants of the
behavioral environment of the Northern Ojibwa. In the past decade or so the "personal document" approach in
What is of special theoretical importance for our discussion is that anthropology has begun to yield a new dimension to ethnography. 60 A
whereas most nonhuman beings oí the behavioral environment of the number of autobiographies of individuals in nonliterate societies have
Ojibwa can only be met in dreams, it is otherwise with mémengwéciwak. appeared. But one point has been overlooked. If concepts of the self
These beings reputedly have been seen or heard singing in ordinary life and the kind of experiences that become self-reiated are culturally con-
by a number of Indians. This "equivocal" status also demonstrates the stituted, then the content of autobiographical data must likewise be
unified structure of the behavioral environment of the Ojibwa. It is im- considered in a variable framework. This content in some cultures will
possible to dichotomize it in our terms and make psychological sense not be in accord with the kind of self-related experience that we con-
from the anecdotal accounts of the Ojibwa themselves. Mémengwéciwak sider autobiographical in Western culture. It may contain a great deal
are not h u m a n beings (Indians); nor are they "spiritual" entities in of the fantasy material that we exclude from autobiography a n d relegate
the sense of being perceptually intangible beings dwelling in a spatial to dreams or visions. T h e anthropologist may collect dreams, it is true;
region remote from man. From the Ojibwa point of view they are in- but such data may be separated from autobiographical d a t a on an
habitants of the same terrestial region as men and belong to the same a priori basis and never considered as integrally related to a self-image.
class of perceptually apprehensible objects as a moose, a tree, or a man. In recent years, the aim of collecting dreams has been principally in-
And, like them, they may be "perceived" in dreams as well as in ordinary spired by their value for the analysis of personality dynamics. 61 At an-
daily life. other level, however, dreams or other fantasy data may be relevant to
Consonant with this conception of these beings anecdotes are told autobiography, if we consider that autobiography involves a retrospec-
about Indians who sometimes have met mémengwéciwak while out tive account of the experiences of the self. It would be interesting to know
hunting. One of these stories has an interesting climax. After following what a systematic phrasing of autobiography with relation to the self-
some mémengwéciwak to one of their rocky dwellings an Indian, ac- image of a culture might bring forth. O n e thing the investigator would
cording to his own account, attempted to follow them in. But the rocks then encourage would be the searching of the subject's memory and the
closed as soon as mémengwéciwak had gone through. As the prow of recall of ail experiences that were interpreted by him as self-related.
his canoe bumped hard against the rocks, the Indian heard ( I have used this approach in Chapter 8.)
mémengwéciwak laughing inside. On the other hand, an old man once Temporal orientation is not only an important means through
told me that he had seen his father enter the rocks. What the Ojibwa which past experience can be organized in a self-related manner; a
say is that it is necessary to receive a blessing from mémengwéciwak in temporal schema is directly related to future conduct, to contemplated

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action, to the destiny of the self. This implies the notion of self-continuity maintenance and the persistence of traditional culture patterns as it
as one of the ubiquitous aspects of self-awareness. The self not only is for the psychological adjustment of the individual.
has a past and a present, but a long future existence. Murdock lists
Motives at the human level are peculiarly complex because they
eschatology as a common denominator of culture. The self may be con-
are essentially acquired rather than innately determined. 65 In conse-
ceived to be immortal, indestructible, or eternal. Such grandiose at-
quence, their range and variety is very great. Many attempts to reduce
tributes of the self-image necessitate a spatiotemporal frame of reference
human motives to constant biological attributes of the organism, or
since deceased selves, if they continue to exist, must exist somewhere.
physiological determinants, have proved inadequate. By this means we
Frank says that
can, at best, onlv speak in terms of a common denominator of needs.
It has been the great office of culture, and specifically of religion to provide the In doing so we not only ignore the most characteristic feature of human
major time perspective of c o n d u c t by insisting upon the relative dimensions of
the immediate present as seen in the focus of eternity. Culture, as transmitted
motives, but also the relation of needs to the self as culturally constituted.
by parents and other cultural agents, prevents man from acting impulsively and Referring to Cannon's theory of homeostasis, MacLeod writes:
naively, as his needs, urges, and desires might dictate, and so compels h i m to
T h e studies of homeostasis show how, w h e n a deficiency c a n n o t be m e t readily
regulate his conduct t o w a i d s the opportunities around him, w h i c h he sees in
by means of the resources of the body, a c r a v i n g is generated w h i c h persists
the time perspective of life after death or other forward reference. T h e H i n d u
until, through behavior, the o p t i m u m condition is restored. Here we h a v e the
belief in reincarnation a n a endless striving toward perfection is probably the
basis for an understanding of some of our most elementary forms of motivation.
most attenuated and compelling time perspective that sets every event and h u -
But w e have also the basis for a redefinition of the c o n c e p t of need. A need is
man action in this ever-receding perspective from w h i c h there is no escape. Each
generated w h e n a self-regulating system is disrupted. Its strength and the charac-
culture and e a c h religion presents its o w n time perspective and emphasizes the
ter of its directedness are determined by the character of the system a n d by the
necessity of patterning h u m a n conduct in its focus, so that one culture will re-
nature of the disruption. A self-sufficient system will generate no needs. If we
press and another foster sexual functioning, one will favor and another repress
take this argument seriously, we may discard as artifacts the conventional lists
aquisitiveness, and so on. T h u s asceticism, continence, and all other virtues m a y
of primary organismic needs, and possibly all other inventories of f u n d a m e n t a l
be viewed as responses to the dimensions imposed upon the presently religious,
ethical time perspectives, m a n y of w h i c h reduce the present to insignificance needs as well.
e x c e p t as a preparation for the future in which this ascetism will be rewarded. Physiological homeostasis c a n account for the generation of some needs,
T o insist then upon time perspectives in h u m a n conduct is to recognize the ages- but it does not follow that it will account for the generation of all needs. It
old significance given to the future, but to bring that future into the m a n a g e - w o u l d be pushing the physiological hypothesis to a ridiculous extreme if we
able present and give it an operational m e a n i n g by showing that the future is were to insist that there must be a biochemical deficiency initiating every wish,
that name we give to the altered dimensions of the present ambition, hope, and inclination. Yet they are the stuff of which the motivation
of real life is constituted. U n d e r some circumstances I need friendship or need
T o understand the orientation of the self in its culturally constituted to catch a train just as truly as under other circumstances I may n e e d water
behavioral environment, future time and a cosmographic dimension can- or calcium. W h e n c e do these needs come, if not from the disruption of a physi-
not be ignored. ological system? It has always been clear to everyone b u t the psychologist that
these are needs of the self. A n d even the psychologist, g o a d e d and shamed by the
Motivational Orientation.—A fourth orientation with which a cul- psychoanalyst, is beginning to concede reluctantly that whatever is d e n o t e d by
ture must provide the self may be characterized as motivational. 63 Mo- the word "self" may have some reality. O n c e w e free ourselves of the compulsion
tivational orientation is orientation of the self towards the objects of to explain away the facts of direct experience by reducing t h e m to atoms or tracing
its behavioral environment with reference to the satisfaction of its needs. t h e m back to non-observable origins we realize that the self is just as compelling,
just as inescapable a datum, as is the perceptual object. W h e n "I n e e d friend-
This is why the self must be groomed for action. The satisfaction of
ship" it is the "I" that has the need. If we analyze a w a y the "I" w e lose the
needs requires some kind of activity. A world of objects is not only dis- m e a n i n g of the motivation, just as w h e n we analyze a w a y the perceptual object
criminated; objects of different classes have specific attributes that must we lose the meaning of perception. 6 6
be taken into account in interaction with them; even the valence they If in approaching the problem of hum an needs we take into ac-
have for the self is culturally constituted. Some classes of objects may count the needs of the self, then it would seem necessary to investigate
have highly positive attributes; others may, on occasion, or even charac- variant needs of the self in its behavioral environment. I n this way we
teristically, be threatening to the security of the self. Consequently, any may be able to identify and discriminate motivational patterns in the
sort of activity must be given purposeful direction in order that the psychological field of the individual that may escape us entirely if we
pursuit of appropriate goals may contribute to the needs of the self.64 rely exclusively upon any reductionistic approach.
Since the motivational structure of individuals includes the entire range It has been frequently pointed out that in the process of self-objecti-
of needs, interests, wants, and attitudes that underlie the functioning of fication the self becomes an object of value for the hum an individual.
a h u m a n social order, a motivational orientation is as necessary for the Sherif and Cantril, e.g., write, "A characteristic fact that holds for any
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I. CULTURE, P E R S O N A L I T Y , A N D E X P E R I E N C E :

individual in any culture [italics ours] is that experience related to ego- sharing is an act of self-defense against possible aggression, for sorcery
attitudes, ego-experiences, are felt by the individual with a peculiar is a potential danger that is always present, it is necessary to be con-
warmth and familiarity." 67 Accepting this generalization, I believe that tinually on the alert. (See Chap. 15.) Conequently, food-sharing cannot
a further point needs special emphasis. This positive evaluation of the be interpreted motivationally without further knowledge of relevant
self represents the keystone of the characteristic motivational structure cultural facts.
that we find in man. This is due to the fact that cultures not only share Even from an economic point of view, food-sharing may be in-
a common function in mediating self-objectification, it is one of their terpreted as a defense against a very realistic threat—starvation. In
concomitant functions to constitute the self as a primary object of value the aboriginal period and even in this century, there are vicissitudes
in a world of other objects. While self-love when considered in terms inherent in Ojibwa economy and ecology that are potent with anxiety.
of the psychodvnamics of the individual may have its own idiosyncratic While I may be very lucky in my hunting or fishing today, I am also
patterns and while there are undoubtedly cultural variables to be con- likely to be periodically faced with starvation. For try as hard as I may,
sidered, it seems difficult to escape the conclusion that some positive I cannot secure enough to feed my family. Thus a system of mutual
rather than negative evaluation of self is one of the conditions neces- sharing of food bridges lean periods for everyone. When considered in
sary for a h u m a n level of normal psychological adjustment. Neither the relation to sorcery it is not difficult to see how malevolent motives may
principle of homeostasis nor an "instinct of self-preservation" accounts be attributed to any individual who refuses to share food, or who fails
for the needs of the h u m a n individual at this level of adjustment. Mo- to be hospitable. If I don't share what I have with you, when you need
tivations that are related to the needs of the self as an object of primary it, I must be hostile to you. At any rate, you may in turn become angry
value in its behavioral environment are not in the same category as and attack me by means of sorcery. O n the other hand, if I always
the needs of animals whose behavior is motivated in a psychological field share what I have no one will have reason to sorcerize me on that
in which any form of self-reference is lacking. score, and I will suffer from much less anxiety. At the same time, by
playing my expected role, any anxiety that I may have about what may
With this fact in mind, concepts such as self-enhancement, self- happen to me in lean periods is allayed. T h e psychological reality of
defense, aspiration level 68 become more meaningful in cross-cultural per- this motivational picture is supported by a case in which an Indian over-
spective. T h e same is true for a deeper psychological understanding of looked another man when he was passing around a bottle of whiskey.
concepts such as selfishness, self-love, self-interest. T h a t there are im- Later when this Indian became ill, he was certain that the man he over-
portant cultural variables involved and that an examination of them looked got angry and sorcerized him. His illness was a revengeful act in
is pertinent to motivation is implied by Fromm. 6 9 From the standpoint retaliation for not sharing the whiskey. This pattern of sharing is so
of motivational orientation the phenomena characterized as "ego-in- deep-seated that I have seen very small children, when given a stick
volvement," the identification of the self with things, individuals, and of candy, immediately share it with their playmates.
groups of individuals, is likewise of great importance. T h e range and If we consider motives to be intervening variables which, since they
character of "ego-involvements" 70 as constituted by variations in the cannot be directly observed. 71 must always be inferred, it is even more
structure of different behavioral environments need detailed examination. apparent why the self must be given some motivational orientation. As
By way of illustration, a brief consideration of some of the fore- observers of the behavior of people in another cultural setting, it is
going concepts in relation to the interpretation of the motives of in- almost inevitable that we go astray unless we have some understanding
dividuals in a nonliterate culture may serve to highlight some of the of this orientation. While the positive evaluation given the self implies
essential problems. the basic importance of self-defense in relation to motivation, the dis-
Among the O j i b w a Indians, a hunting people, food-sharing beyond crimination of the actual motives that have self-defense as their goal
the immediate family circle might appear to suggest unselfishness, gener- requires some understanding of culturally constituted threats to the self.
osity, affection, kindness, and love. Without denying altogether motives T h e fact that the Ojibwa live in a behavioral environment where the
that such terms may suggest, I believe that any immediate interpreta- threat of sorcery exists inevitably gives a characteristic coloring to their
tion of this sort is misleading. Nor can it be assumed that food-sharing motivational patterns related to self-defense. The need for some means
is an' indication that the individual has become so closely identified with of defense against sorcery becomes highly salient for them so that ac-
other members of his group that there is an inseparable coalescence of tivities such as food-sharing, hospitality, and lending, which in another
interests. It is demonstrable that one of the most potent motivations in culture might be placed in another motivational category, must here be
food-sharing and hospitality is apprehension or fear of sorcery. Food- considered in relation to self-defense.

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There is another side to this picture, however, which requires substitute been found. Acculturation in certain groups of Ojibwa has
parallel emphasis^ A more ultimate goal than self-defense is what the pushed their personality structure to the farthest limits of its func-
Ojibwa call plmádazíwin: Life in the most inclusive sense. O n e hears tional adequacy under these newer conditions, with dire results. 72
them utter this word in ceremonies over and over again. It means a long I have tried to indicate that the motivational orientation that Ojibwa
life and a life free from illness or other misfortune. T o them it is far culture structures for the self includes dynamic relations with other-
from a banal or commonplace ideal. Their daily existence is not an easy than-human beings. This must be the case in other cultures, too, although
one a n d there are many things that threaten life. Motivational orienta- the psychological significance of the nature of these relationships re-
tion toward this central goal involves a consideration of culturally con- quires examination. But once we assume the standpoint of the self rather
stituted means that assist the individual in reaching it. Among these, than the viewpoint of an outside observer, the motivational orientation
the help of other selves—entities that are willing to share their power of the self throughout the entire range of its behavioral environment must
with men—is the most important. These are the pawáganak. They be considered. This is why I have emphasized the importance of the
exist in the behavioral environment a n d they become primary goal- pawáganak as goal-objects in relation to the satisfaction of needs of the
objects of the self in achieving ptmadaziwin. An essential aspect of the self that cannot, in this behavioral environment, be met through hum an
motivational orientation of the self involves an attitude of dependence contacts. Once this fact is recognized, we can deduce the "isolation"
upon these pawáganak. H u m a n beings are conceived of as intrinsically of the Ojibwa self which, in turn, is consonant with the "atomistic" char-
weak and helpless, so far as what we would call "natural" abilities are acter of their society. Especially among males, there is a latent suspicion
concerned. Consequently, it is essential that assistance be secured from based on the potential threat of magical attack that operates as a barrier
other-than-human selves. This assistance is concretely conceived in to genuine affective ties, even among blood relatives. This barrier does
the form of special blessings f r o m the pawáganak that confer power upon not exist in relations with the pawáganak. For even though superhuman
h u m a n beings to do many things that would be otherwise impossible for in power, they are not the sources of hostility or punishment. T h e only
them to do. T h e desire for such power thus constitutes the primary need real danger from them is when they are in the service of some h u m a n
of every Ojibwa man. For it is only by securing such power that he can being who may invoke their aid against me because they have conferred
be a successful hunter, practice curing, resist sorcery or retaliate in power on him. On the other hand, I am in the same position in relation
kind, a n d so on. I t makes him feel that he can achieve Life. to him, through my own blessings. My pawáganak are my best and most
T h e existence of such goal-objects as the pawáganak, towards which loyal "friends." Who they are and how much power I have is my secret,
they are so highly motivated, influences much of the conduct of the as it is every other man's, until matters are put to a pragmatic test.
Ojibwa. T h e fact that f r o m the standpoint of the outside observer Women do not customarily acquire power in the same way as men, al-
such objects are not in the geographical environment makes no psycho- though stories are told of what women have been able to do when the
logical difference. Goal-objects, through symbolic representation, can occasion has arisen.
mediate the satisfaction of certain needs as well as material objects can. Normative Orientation.—A normative orientation is the fifth orien-
If we wish to translate the need that is satisfied into psychological ter- tation with which a culture provides the self. Values, ideals, standards
minology we can say that the pawáganak are the major means of self- are intrinsic components of all cultures. Some of these may be implicit,
enhancement in the behavioral environment of the Ojibwa. They are others explicit. In any case, neither the psychological nor the sociological
the mainstay of a feeling of psychological security. This is why their importance of this orientation of the self can be minimized. 73 O n the
native religion m e a n t so much to the Ojibwa. Largely because of the one hand, motivational orientation in man cannot be fully understood
way in which sorcery was conceived to operate, and for other reasons, without normative orientation, since values are a n integral aspect of
the self could not achieve a basic sense of security through interpersonal needs and goals. On the other hand, without normative orientation,
relations with other h u man beings alone. Relations with and dependence self-awareness in man could not function in one of its most characteristic
upon the pawáganak were more vital. T h e crucial nature of this focus forms—self-appraisal of conduct. For the individual would have no
of Ojibwa needs, goals, and motivations for an understanding of the standard by which to judge his own acts or those of others, nor any
dynamics of personal adjustment is heightened by knowledge of what ideals to which he might aspire.
has happened to them in the course of their contacts with white men As pointed out earlier one of the most typical features of a hum an
and Western culture. Under these conditions the structure of their be- social order is that it is likewise a moral order. There is always the pre-
havioral environment has been radically modified and the primary needs sumption that an individual is not only aware of his own personal identity
of the self can n o longer be met in the traditional way. Nor has any and conduct in a spatiotemporal frame of reference, b u t that he is
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capable of judging his own conduct by the standards of his culture. by the normative orientation of the self. For animals without the capacity
Thus normative orientation is a necessary corollary of self-orientation. for self-awareness no such situation can arise. In man, therefore, un-
Among other things the individual must be motivated to consider whether conscious mechanisms that operate at a psychological level that does
his acts are right or wrong, good or bad. T h e outcome of this appraisal not involve self-awareness may be viewed as an adaptive means that
is, in turn, related to attitudes of self-esteem or self-respect and to the permits some measure of compromise between conflicting forces. 76 They
appraisal of others. may relieve the individual of part of the burden forced upon him by
Implicit in moral appraisal is the concomitant assumption that the the requirements of the morally responsible existence that hum an society
individual has volitional control over his own acts. This leads directly demands. Hilgard points out that in addition to the role which such
to the affective aspects of self-judgment—"In man," as Hilgard says, mechanisms may play as defenses against anxieties experienced by the
"anxiety becomes intermingled with guilt-feelings. The Mowrer and self, they likewise permit the "bolstering [of] self-esteem through self-
Miller experiments with animals carry the natural history of anxiety deception." 77 " T h e need for self-deception arises because of a more
through the stages of fear and apprehension, but not to the stage of fundamental need to maintain or to restore self-esteem. Anything be-
guilt-feelings. I n many cases which come to the clinic, the apprehen- littling to the self is to be avoided. T h a t is why the memories lost in
sion includes the fear lest some past offense will be brought to light, amnesia are usually those with a self-reference, concealing episodes which
or lest some act will be committed which deserves pain and punish- are anxiety- or guilt-producing. What is feared is loss of status, loss
ment. It is such apprehensions which go by the name of guilt-feelings, of security of the self. T h a t is why aspects of the self which are dis-
because they imply the responsibility of the individual for his past or approved are disguised." There seems to be little question that one of
future misbehavior. To feel guilty is to conceive of the self as an agent the crucial areas of human adjustment of necessity turns upon the
capable of good or bad choices. It thus appears that at the point that tolerance with which the self views its own moral status and the sensi-
anxiety becomes infused with guilt-feelings, self-reference enters." 74 tivity of the self to feelings of anxiety and guilt. A comprehensive un-
T h e fact that the h u m a n individual not only is motivated to become derstanding of this whole matter requires a better cross-cultural knowl-
the moral judge of self-related acts, but reacts emotionally to this judg- edge of the self-image and of the manner in which the self is norma-
ment is peculiarly human. At the conscious level, what the self feels tively oriented with reference to the values, ideals, and standards of dif-
guilty about or what particular acts arouse apprehension is one of the ferent cultures.
consequences of normative orientation. (As for the unconscious aspects If we view normative orientation as one of the m a j o r orientations
of this same orientation and the processes through which values in- of the self in its behavioral environment, there are some novel areas of
corporated in a superego become an integral part of the self, any dis- inquiry that suggest themselves. Just as, in terms of a given self-image,
cussion of this problem would divert us into an aspect of the psycho- naturalistic time and space may be transcended in self-related experience
dynamics of h u m a n adjustment that is not our primary concern here. 75 ) and the self may interact socially with other-than-human selves, so in
It is now clear that, in relation to this adjustment process, differential the moral world of the self the acts for which the self may feel morally
value systems are one important variable and that the orientation of responsible may not all be attributed to waking life, nor to a single mun-
the self in relation to these is of great importance. One broad conclusion dane existence, nor to interpersonal relations with h u m a n beings alone.
seems inescapable. If the self were not motivated towards conscious self- For the selves of this latter category may be only a single class of beings
appraisal, rationalization, repression, and other unconscious mechan- that exist in the total behavioral environment as constituted for the self.
isms of self-defense would have no ostensible purpose. On the one hand, Consequently, one fundamental question that arises is the actual dimen-
the individual is self-oriented through cultural means in a manner sions of the area within the behavioral environment to which the norma-
which leads to the evaluation of the self as an object of primary value. tive orientation of the self is directed and the consequences of this in
Any kind of self-depreciation, loss of self-esteem, or threat to the self the observable behavior of the individual. W h a t does a consideration of
impairs the complex motivational systems that focus upon the self and the normative orientation of the self in its total behavioral environment
its needs. At the same time, self-evaluation through culturally recog- contribute to our understanding of the role of values, ideals, and recog-
nized norms is inescapable. Awareness of these is necessary because the nized standards to the needs and motivations of the self?
individual has to take account of explicitly formulated or institutional- We have some reports in the literature, for example, where the
ized social sanctions. This imposes a characteristic psychological burden moral responsibility of the self in dreams is viewed as continuous with
upon the h u m a n being, since it is not always possible to reconcile, at waking life. Lincoln 78 refers to Ashanti dreams of adultery which subject
the level of self-awareness, idiosyncratic needs with the demands imposed the individual to a fine, and to the Kai where adultery dreams likewise
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are punishable. But much more detailed inquiry into these phenomena intelligible. From the standpoint of normative orientation her motives
would be desirable. were of the highest in terms of the values of her culture. Suttee is a noble
A case of suttee that occurred in India at the beginning of the nine- and divinely sanctioned act on the part of a wife. Although suttee, if
teenth century and was reported by Sieeman 79 is of particular interest viewed from outside this behavioral environment, may be considered as
because it brings to a concrete focus all the orientations of the self that suicide in the sense of self-destruction, from the standpoint of the self-
have been discussed here. related motivational structure of the old woman, any self-destruction
T h e essential facts are these: A married man, a Brahman, died and was literally impossible. She had already lived with her "former" husband
his widow was persuaded not to join her husband on the funeral pyre. during three births; she had only been separated from him during her
But on hearing of the death of this man a married woman of about present birth because of an error for which she had now paid the penalty;
sixty years of age, of lower caste, who lived with her husband in a vil- she h a d still other births ahead of her. T h e time h a d now come t o rejoin
lage about two miles away, presented herself to members of the Brahman's her "husband." W h a t suttee offered was an occasion for self-enhance-
family. She said she wished to burn on the pyre with the deceased man. ment and self-continuity in thorough harmony with the continued main-
This was because she had been his wife in three previous births and "had tenance of self-respect reinforced by the deeply rooted approval of her
already burnt herself with him three times, and had to burn with him fellows. 80 Their behavioral environment was psychologically structured
four times more."The Brahman's family were surprised to hear this and like hers so that their motivations and behavior could be very easily
said there must be some mistake, particularly in view of the difference coordinated with hers in terms that were meaningful to them.
in caste. T h e old woman had no difficulty in explaining this. She said
T h e role that normative orientation may play in giving moral unity
that in her last birth, at which time she resided in Benares with the
to the relations of the self with all classes of animate beings throughout
Brahman, she had by mistake given a holy man who applied for charity
its behavioral environment is illustrated by the Ojibwa. In the case of
salt instead of sugar in his food. H e told her that, in consequence, "she
certain central values, considered them from the standpoint of the Ojibwa
should, in the next birth, be separated from her husband, and be of
self, it is completely arbitrary to isolate the relations of hum an beings
inferior caste, but that, if she did her duty well in that state, she should
with each other from the relations of the self to other-than-human selves.
be reunited to him in the following birth." T h e Brahman's family would
And from the standpoint of psychological understanding it is likewise
not, however, accede to her request. Among other things, the widow in-
unrealistic to ignore the significance of the dimensions of the normative
sisted that "if she were not allowed to burn herself, the other should
orientation of the self.
not be allowed to take her place." What happened was this. Despite
the fact t h a t the Brahman's family at this time was not fully convinced It has been said that the grammatical distinction between animate
of the old woman's claims and denied her plea, she carried out her in- and inanimate gender in Ojibwa speech is arbitrary and hard to master.
tentions nonetheless. She stole a handful of ashes from the pyre of her It only appears so to the outsider. Actually, it is precisely these distinc-
"former" husband and prevailed upon her present husband and her tions which give the Ojibwa individual the necessary linguistic cues to
mother to prepare the pyre upon which she immolated herself. the various classes of other selves that he must take account of in his
This h a d all happened twenty years before the youngest brother of behavioral environment. I t is also significant that he is not an "animist"
the Brahman told the story to Sieeman. T h e latter requested his frank in the classical sense. There are objects—an axe, a mountain, a canoe,
opinion. It turned out that, partly in view of a prophecy the old woman a rainbow—that fall within the inanimate class. I n addition to hum an
m a d e at the pyre and other circumstances, the family of her "former" beings and pawáganak all animals and most plants are classified as
husband were, in the end, absolutely convinced that her claim was true. animate. So are Thunder, the W7inds, Snow, Sun-Moon (gizis, luminary),
They defrayed all her funeral expense and the rites were carried out in certain shells, stones, etc. I once asked an old m a n whether all stones were
accordance with her "real" social status. They also built her a tomb alive. His reply was, "Some are." Another old man is said to have ad-
which Sieeman later visited. He found that everyone in her village and dressed a stone; another thought that a T h u n d e r Bird spoke to him.
all the people in the town where her "former" husband h a d lived were Many examples could be cited to show that on the assumption that
thoroughly convinced of her claims. i.nima's have a body and a sou! like man they are treated as if they had
I t is perfectly clear that the motivation of the old woman of lower self-awareness and volition. Bears may be spoken t o and are expected
caste cannot be separated from a culturally constituted self-image which to respond intelligently; the bones of animals that are killed have to be
involves the conviction of reincarnation. Consequently, she could appeal disposed of with care. Although the Ojibwa are hunters a n d depend
to experiences in a former existence, through recall, to make her plea upon the killing of wild game, nevertheless cruelty is not only frowned
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upon but may be penalized by subsequent sickness.81 Gigantic cannibal

monsters exist in the behavioral environment of the Ojibwa. They have
been seen and even fought with. To kill a windigo is a feat of the utmost
heroism; it is a sure sign of greatness because it is impossible to accom-
plish without superhuman help. But cruelty to a windigo is not permitted,
and in one case I have recorded this was the reputed source of a man's
illness.
Greed is not only disapproved of in h u ma n relations. There is a
story told of a boy who in his puberty fast wanted to dream of "all the
leaves on all the trees." H e was not satisfied with the blessing that had
already been given him by the pawáganak, but insisted on more power.
H e did not live to enioy the blessings he had been given. 82
The psychological significance of considering the normative orien-
tation of the Ojibwa throughout its total range rests upon the fact that
in relations with animals or "spiritual" beings departure from traditional
standards is subject to the same sanctions that apply in huma n relations.
Any serious illness is believed to be a penalty for wrongdoing. T h e indi-
vidual is encouraged to confess anything wrong he may have done in
the past in order to facilitate recovery. 83 Consequently, it is possible to
find out what the individual actually feels guilty about. It is demonstrable
that, in addition to guilt based upon interpersonal relations with h u m a n
beings, self-related experiences that transcend these and involve relations
with nonhuman selves may likewise be the source of guilt.
CONCLUSION
I n this chapter I have advanced the hypothesis that by giving primary
consideration to the self and its behavioral environment all cultures will
be seen to share certain central functions. In order for self-awareness to
emerge and function in h u man societies, the individual'must be given
basic orientations that structure the psychological field in which the self
is prepared to act. Thus, while the content of the behavioral environ-
ment of man may differ greatly and intermesh with the geographical
environment in various ways, there are common functions that different
cultural means must serve in order for a human level of psychodynamic
adjustment to be maintained. At this level self-awareness is a m a j o r
component of the personality structure of man. If we assume the point
of view of the self in its behavioral environment, it is likewise possible
to gain a more direct insight into the psychological field of the individual
as he experiences it than a purely objective cultural description affords.

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