Referring to: Billington and Goffman
What is a self?
(Billington reading Kondo quote pg 58) “There are fundamentally different cultural ideas about what it is to be human.”
In other words what is seen as normal or healthy in one country may be the opposite in another.
I am going to introduce the different notions of self which we learnt in uni. They are the Essentialists and Non-(or anti) essentialist understandings of the self.
I’ll begin with the Essentialists view
Billington - The self is a core entity which is untouched by social experience. It is the inborn, genuine, true self which is found deep inside of us. This self remains consistent and stable to our personality without change due to external circumstances.
People often use mediums such as therapy, travel, education, retreat etc to help reveal their real self. You have probably herd the expression of people needing to go ‘find themselves’.
The next is the Non- Essentialist view (Goffman)
This notion explains the self as a social construction. It is culturally defined and shaped by external influences. It is also an over socialised view of the self. It gives way to being changed and managed.
There are crucially different ways that people experience their selfhood. The self contained individual is embedded in western thought as opposed to the self connected to group membership and kinship.
For example some tribe members refer to themselves as their tribe name not individual name. In this concept the group is more important to the way they see themselves then their individual selves.
I explored selfhood in three different countries. (Geertz)
In Java 2 separate selves are identified with- an inside self (Batin) where felt feeling is expressed and outside self (lair) which include external actions such as behaviour, movement, speech and postures. The aim is to be alus - meaning refined, civilised, smooth, subtle and so on. In other words the self is separated into inner emotions of deep honest feelings and the outer etiquette.
In Balinese culture the self is seen as serving a group purpose. Quote: “It is not the individual as such that is important but rather his or her assigned place in the patterns of Balinese life.”
In Morocco selfhood is defined as the positioning of an individual according to categories of origin such as kinship, language, religion, occupation and tribal membership. They are viewed by the terms of their interactions and relationships.
Further more Japan there is no underlining word to express the word “I”. Konda experiences the self in Japan as defined by obligation and links to others.
Where does our sense of self come from?
And Do we ‘perform’ ourselves?
Evidently different societies have different understandings of the self. The self is culturally and socially constructed. Even if we think we aren’t affected so much we are still passively socialised through observation.
Quote Bilton: “It is an ongoing process whereby individuals learn to conform to society’s prevailing norms and values.”
We live our lives as members of social groups such as Ethnicity, Gender, Religion, Age, Family, Stratified ‘class’ groups. An example of this is the toys we buy our children according to their gender. Dolls for girls and cars for boys.
These cultural and social factors affect our sense of being. One person has a vast number of roles and relationships to play out. For example in one day, one woman may be a mother, daughter, wife, teacher, counsellor, cook, manager and more. These roles have sub roles, boundaries and may overlap. An example is of the wife being a friend, lover and cook to her husband but being careful not to be a teacher or counsellor to him. The roles we play become our identity and the way others see us too.
Where do we perform? and What props do we use?
According to Goffman we perform on the front stage where we try to present our best side to people. We try to project a similar image that is suitable according to the context. For example linking this back to the topic of greetings - in a work situation we often greet other co-workers and ask how they are to be polite rather then actually concerned about their well-being.
We literally put on a show for each other. The front often refers to our appearance and manner which often we expect a connection between the two and do not always find. For example their status may be lower to what their language; gestures, clothing and ultimately their ‘act’ let us think.
The backstage is our private region which is often home where we self monitor ourselves, practise our performance and take time to relax.
Why do we perform and act in everyday life?
We like to manage the impressions that people get of us. It is a way of controlling the situation and the response you get from others. Oneself’s best image is often the presentation the values that we praise of a society.
For example hard work or sexual fidelity.
Bowels and Gintis theory of cultivating qualities useful to capitalism. They propose that American schools teach a hidden curriculum of values and attitudes that felicitate social control. They commend virtures such as politeness, punctuality and independence as a worker which in turn raises good workers for employers in the near future. The needs of the economy are met with by training people in a capitalist society by the means of socialising a hard working society.
Does Goffman’s approach destroy a sense of personal and core self?
Goffman utilises the Anti-Essentialist approach where the personal and core self is culturally and socially constructed and is open to change- whereas the essentialist approach denotes the self to be inborn and something that does not change due to the external influences such as socialisation or culture. They are quite opposite views of the self in this way. The way I understand Goffman is that he see’s the self as a set of performances like on the stage due to the cultural and social structures of a given society.
