Debating Self, Identity, and Culture in Anthropology [and Comments and Reply]

In early visits to Lothlorien—which is a loosely Pagan community of environmentalists in Indiana—I was confounded by attempts to categorize either the place or the people. As one of the founders said, “I tend to run from labels so I don't know what I am. It's safer that way.” In this paper I explore four members’ narratives about the emotional high points in their lives, where they often cross the usual boundaries of self and other. At the same time the subjectivity at the core of these experiences is something that is felt and that cannot be dismissed as a discursive construct. Through these narratives I attempt to understand selfhood as a process—experientially inescapable but essentially in flux. I see a strong case for anthropologists moving beyond an overly neat, overly dichotomized view of “Western” and “non‐Western” senses of self.

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Deconstructing Community

Barrett

2014

Sociologia Ruralis

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This article develops a conceptual framework for the analysis of community that is designed to explain the complexity, diversity and changes that account for comparative community differentiation in the modern world. The concept is deconstructed into a number of constituent dimensions and dynamic processes, revealing the interrelationships between interest, normativity and identity. Contradictory processes associated with solidarity and exclusion are shown to push and pull at each other through the different dimensions. These processes are manifested in people's everyday lives, often simultaneously. This complexity is a source of both the vulnerability and the strength of communities. The article concludes with a number of diagnostic tools for deconstructing community and a three‐pronged approach for community revitalisation.

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Debating Self, Identity, and Culture in Anthropology [and Comments and Reply]

Cited by 14 publications

References 37 publications

Personhood, Agency, and Mortuary Ritual: A Case Study from the Ancient Maya

Personhood, Agency, and Mortuary Ritual: A Case Study from the Ancient Maya

The Unbounded Self: Peak Experiences and Border Crossings in Southern Indiana

Deconstructing Community

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