THE SELF ACCORDING TO
SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY
Sociology and Anthropology
Sociology and Anthropology are two interrelated
disciplines that contributes to the understanding of self.
Sociology presents the self as a product of modern society. It is
the science that studies the development, structure, interaction,
and collective behavior of human being. On the other hand,
Anthropology is the study of humanity. This broad field takes an
interdisciplinary approach to looking at human culture, both past
and present.
George Herbert Mead and the Social Self
• Mead is an American philosopher,
sociologist, and psychologist. He is
regarded as one of the founders of social
psychology and the American sociological
tradition in general. Mead is well-known for
his theory of self
• He postulated that, the self represents the sum total
of people’s conscious perception of their identity as
distinct from others. Mead argued that the self like
the mind is social emergent. This means that
individual selves are the products of social
interaction and not logical or biological
in nature.
The social emergence of self is developed due to the
three forms of inter-subjective activity, the language,
play, and the game .He proposed the stages of self
formation:
1. Preparatory Stage
2. The Play Stage
3. The Game Stage
The self, according to Mead is not merely a passive reflection
of the generalized other. The responses of the individual to the
social world are also active, it means that a person decides what
they will do in reference to the attitude of others but not
mechanically determined by such attitudinal structures. Here,
Mead identified the two phases of self:
1. the phase which reflects the attitude of the generalized
other or the “me”; and
2. the phase that responds to the attitude of generalized other
or the “I”.
The Self as a product of modern society among other
constructions
Georg Simmel
Simmel was a German sociologist, philosopher, and critic. He was
intensely interested in the ways in which modern, objective culture
impacts the individual’s subjective experiences.
In contrast to Mead, Simmel proposed that there is something called
human nature that is innate to the individual. This human nature is
intrinsic to the individual like the natural inclination to religious
impulse or the gender differences. He also added that most of our social
interactions are individual motivations.
Simmel as a social thinker made a distinction between subjective
and objective culture. The individual or subjective culture refers
to the ability to embrace, use, and feel culture.
• Objective culture is made up of elements that become separated
from the individual or group’s control and identified as separate
objects.
• There are interrelated forces in modern society that tend to
increase objective culture according to Simmel.
These are urbanizations, money, and the configuration
of one’s social network.
The Self and Person in the Contemporary Anthropology
Archeology. Focus on the study of the past and how it may
have contributed to the present ways of how people conduct
their daily lives.
Biological Anthropology. Focus on how the human body
adapts to the different earth environments.
Linguistic Anthropology. Focused on using language as
means to discover a group’s manner of social interaction and
their worldview.
Cultural Anthropology. Focused in knowing what
makes one group’s manner of living forms an essential
part of the member’s personal and societal identity. This
encompasses the principles of Theory of Cultural
Determinism which suggests that the human nature is
determined by the kind of culture he is born and grew up
in. Cultural diversities are manifested in different ways
and different levels of dept. The following are the ways
in which culture may manifest itself in people
Symbols. These are the words, gestures, pictures or objects that have
recognized or accepted meaning in a particular culture.
Heroes. These are persons from the past or present who have characteristics
that are important in culture.
Rituals. These are activities participated by a group of people for the
fulfilment of desired objectives and are concerned to be socially essential.
Values. These are considered to be the core of every culture. These are
unconscious, neither discuss or observed, and can only be inferred from the
way people act and react to situations.
The Self Embedded in the Culture Clifford Geertz
Clifford Geertz was an Anthropology Professor at theUniversity
of Chicago. He studied different cultures and explored on the
conception of the self in his writings entitled,“The Impact of the
Concept of Culture on the Concept of Man” (1966) in his
fieldwork at Java, Bali and Morrocco
