Abstract
Theorizing about the individual has a long history in anthropology, but has often been vitiated by the imposition of frames that oppose the individual to the collective or social realms and/or to the dichotomy between primitive/civilized societies. A historical and processual view sees the ongoing dialectical relationship between categories. Customs are not static but change, while still maintaining aspect of continuity. Thoughtful discussions are found in Anthony Cohen’s work stressing self-consciousness. He criticizes Louis Dumont’s argument that the concern with the individual is an ethnocentric western notion. Another arena of debate has been in Papua New Guinea, where the question of dividuals versus individuals has dominated debates. Our term, relational–individual, mediates this dichotomy, introducing a dialectical ontology.
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Stewart, P.J., Strathern, A.J. (2017). Individuals. In: Breaking the Frames. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47127-3_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47127-3_4
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