Abstract
The anthropologist Grace Harris has recently sought to clarify discussions involving the concepts of “person” and “self” by restricting the use of “individual” to biologistic discourses on human beings as members of the human kind, “self” to psychologistic discourses on human beings as the locus of experience, and “person” to sociologistic discourses on human beings as agent-in-society. She argues that these three modes of conceptualization are universal, but that their scope and interrelations may differ widely (1989).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Carrithers, M. et al. (eds.) (1985), The Category of the Person. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Goffman, E. (1972), Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behaviour. Harmonds-worth: Penguin Books.
Harris, G.G. (1978), Casting Out Anger: Religion among the Taita of Kenya. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Harris, G.G. (1989), Concepts of individual, self, and person in description and analysis. American Anthropologist 91: 599–612.
Heald, S. (1982), The making of men: the relevance of vernacular psychology to the interpretation of a Gisu ritual. Africa 52: 15–36.
Heald, S. (1986), The ritual use of violence: circumcision among the Gisu of Uganda. In D. Riches (ed.), The Anthropology of Violence. Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 70–85.
Hollis, M. and S. Lukes (eds.) (1982), Rationality and Relativism. Oxford: Blackwell.
La Fontaine, J.S. (1957), The Social Organisation of the Gisu of Uganda with Special Reference to their Initiation Ceremonies. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Cambridge.
La Fontaine, J.S. (1959), The Gisu of Uganda. London: International African Institute.
La Fontaine, J.S. (1972), Ritualization of Women’s Life-crises in Bugisu. In J.S. La Fontaine (ed.), The Interpretation of Ritual: Essays in Honour of A.I. Richards. London: Tavistock, pp. 159–186.
La Fontaine, J.S. (1985), Initiation: Ritual Drama and Secret Knowledge across the World. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
Levine, S. (1979), Mothers and Wives: Gusii Women of East Africa. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Lutz, C.A. (1988), Unnatural Emotions: Everyday Sentiments on a Micronesian Atoll and Their Challenge to Western Theory. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Paige, K.E. and J.M. Paige (1981), The Politics of Reproductive Ritual. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Parkin, D. (ed.) (1971), Semantic Anthropology. ASA Monographs 22. New York: Academic Press.
Shweder, R.A. & E.J. Bourne (1984), Does the concept of person vary cross-culturally? In R.A. Shweder & R.A. LeVine (eds.), Essays on Mind, Self and Emotion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 158–199.
Strathern, M. (1988), The Gender of the Gift: Problems with Women and Problems with Society in Melanesia. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Turner, V.W. (1969), Symbolization and patterning in the circumcision rites of two Bantu-speaking societies. In M. Douglas & P.M. Kaberry (eds.), Man in Africa. London: Tavistock Press.
Whiting, J. & B. Whiting (1978), A strategy for psychocultural research. In G. Spindler (ed.), The Making of Psychological Anthropology. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Wagner, G. (1939), Reifeweichen bei den Bantustämmen Kavirondos und ihre hentige Bedentung. Archive für Anthroplogie. Nene Folge, 25, 85–100.
Wagner, G. (1949), The Bantu of North Kavirondo, Volume I. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute.
Wolf, J.J. de (1977), Differentiation and Integration in Western Kenya: A Study of Religious Innovation and Social Change among the Bukusu. The Hague: Mouton.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1994 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
de Wolf, J. (1994). Circumcision and Psychogenesis: Concepts of Individual, Self, and Person in the Description and Analysis of Initiation Rituals of Male Adolescents. In: de Graaf, W., Maier, R. (eds) Sociogenesis Reexamined. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2654-3_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2654-3_15
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-7622-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-2654-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive