Anthropology of the Self: The Individual in Cultural Perspective

The West has always had a particular fondness for the study of the individual: self and subjectivity are key concepts in social theory. Nowhere is this more evident than in anthropology, an academic discipline dedicated to the observation of the human person as a living, conscious and sociable being.

In Anthropology of the Self, Brian Morris adopts a deliberately cross-cultural perspective to explore and contrast the origins, doctrines and conceptions of self in Western, Asian and African societies, ranging through Greek philosophy, Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Confucianism and African philosophy. He concludes with a review of contemporary feminist critiques of dominant tendencies in the Western intellectual tradition. Anthropology of the Self is a lucid and highly readable study and a unique critical guide to the fascinating anthropological literature on cultural conceptions and representations of the human subject.