ANTHROP 1AA3 Lecture : 1AB3_Identity Textbook.docx
11 Jun 2013
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Document Summary
Most cultural anthropologists assume that personality is formed through enculturation, or socialization, the process of transmitting culture to infants and other new members of society through both informal and formal processes. They study how various cultures enculturate their members into having different personalities and identities. Cultural anthropologists also investigate how personalities vary according to cultural context, and some ask why such variations exist. Others study how changing cultural contests affect personality, identity, and well-being over the life cycle. Psychological anthropology is rooted in the so-called culture and personality school, an intellectual movement that began in the. United states in the 1930s and persisted through the 1970s. Culture and personality studies began with franz boas"s interest in the individual, developed through his fieldwork on the northwest. Members of this school adopted some aspects of freudian theories, including the importance of childhood experiences in shaping personality and identity, and the symbolic analysis of dreams.
