ANT102H5 Lecture 4: Identity and Difference
31
ANT102H5 Full Course Notes
Verified Note
31 documents
Document Summary
Essentialism: a key idea that there is something essential in us. Claims to identity and with who we connect. An essence inside of us that is who we are. Genetic essentialism: we can discover and understand differences through genetics. The key to the self lies within the self . Human beings cannot be properly explained through essentialism . We are not identical as human beings. Nature determines who we are as individuals (innate constitutions) We are who we are due to things we learn (our cultures) We share similarities and differences because we learn them, not because we are born with them. One is deprived from being a social and moral person if not informed. The very notion of human nature is itself . Cross-cultural comparison (consider some of the ways people imagine, live, similarities and differences as well as what"s natural) Common for people to resort to ideas of human nature to explain similarities and differences.
