"Psychological Anthropology"
Abstract
"Beginning with a definition of enculturation, this program describes Margaret Mead's landmark efforts to document the influence of culture on individual personality by studying patterns of child rearing in several cultures, including Samoa. Next the program explores the link between personality and culture and the concept of national character as it was studied by anthropologist Ruth Benedict and psychologist Eric Erikson. National character studies of Japan and Nazi Germany during the 1940's are described, along with criticisms of these efforts. The program then examines how societies have ways of treating illness and individuals who deviate from accepted norms. Shamans in several societies are shown including ones from the Melemchi in Nepal, Bali, Laos and from the Yanamamö Indians of Brazil. The narrator describes how, through their treatments and rituals, shamans address the social ills of the group as a whole."
-- PBS (VC 2466, pt. 5)
Terms / Concepts:
- culture
- personality
- acculturation
(H. Barnett, et al)
- enculturation
- education
- habituation / imitation
- socialization
- national character
"typical personality traits associated with a culture"
- values / beliefs / attitudes
- deviance, "normal" / "abnormal"
- "illness" vs. "disease"
- “illness” = culturally specific
- “disease” = universal
- gender roles
- cross-cultural research
- "patterns of culture"
Notes:
- in the 1940s many studies were carried on with the assumption
that "culture is to society what personality is to the individual"
- culture : society : : personality : individual
Cultures:
Sites:
Individuals:
- Ruth
Benedict
- Patterns of Culture
- Chrysanthemum and the Sword
- Margaret
Mead
- Coming of Age in Samoa
- Trance and Dance in Bali
- F. L. K. Hsu
- Erik Erickson
- Robert Edgerton
Rences:
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