Oldest Writing

1
Oldest Writing Self Awareness?
Dated to about 60,000 years ago, inscribed
ostrich shell fragments found in South Africa are
among the earliest examples of the use of
symbolism by modern humans. Over 300 pieces were
found and they were thought to be used as
containers. The markings may have been used to
signify individual or group ownership. If true
this would be some of the earliest evidence of
self-awareness. BBC News http//news.bbc.co.uk/2
/hi/science/nature/8544332.stm
2

• Social Identity, Personality, Anthropology

3
Nature vs. Nurture

• Tabula rasa (Latin blank slate) refers to the
  epistemological thesis that individual human
  beings are born with no built-in mental content,
  in a word, "blank", and that their entire
  resource of knowledge is built up gradually from
  their experiences and sensory perceptions of the
  outside world.
• Eugenics is a social philosophy which advocates
  the improvement of human hereditary traits
  through various forms of intervention. Older
  means of achieving these goals focused on
  selective breeding, while modern ones focus on
  prenatal testing, genetic counseling, birth
  control, in vitro fertilization, and genetic
  engineering.

Nature vs. Nurture Video
http//www.5min.com/Video/The-Nature-vs-Nurture-Ar
gument-175265999
4
Feral Children

• Kamala Amala rescued from a wolf den in India
  in 1920 She moved about on all fours and could
  not feed herself.
• Saturday Mthiyane raised by monkeys in South
  Africa Captured and sent to a school for the
  disabled. Very violent didnt play with others
  wouldnt eat cooked meat didnt like cloths.
  10 years later, still couldnt speak refused to
  eat cooked meat.
• Victor Wild Boy of Aveyron sited in 1800 in
  France. Lived alone, but not raised by animal
  vegetarian diet. Considered an incurable idiot.

Kamala Amala
5
Self Awareness

• The ability to
• Identify oneself as an object.
• React to oneself.
• Appraise or evaluate oneself.
• Self awareness is the concept that one exists as
  an individual, separate from other people, with
  private thoughts. It may include the
  understanding that other people are similarly
  self-aware.

Aymara Indians in the Bolivian village of Laymi
do not consider an infant truly human until they
have given it a name, and naming does not happen
until the child begins to speak at around age 2.
The naming ceremony marks their social transition
from a state of nature to culture and full
membership into the Laymi community. Hopi
children are named at birth but may acquire new
names during subsequent life phases. Navajo
children are often bestowed a clan name after
their first laugh.
6
Self-Image Self-Recognition

• Self-awareness is not restricted to humans.
  Apes, and maybe elephants and dolphins can
  recognize themselves in the mirror.

http//www.youtube.com/watch?vvJFo3trMuD8feature
fvw
7
Theory of Mind (ToM)

• Theory of Mind is the ability to attribute
  mental states beliefs, intents, desires,
  pretending, knowledge, etc to oneself others
  and to understand that others have beliefs,
  desires intentions that are different from
  ones own.
• Theory of mind appears to be an innate potential
  ability in humans, but one requiring social and
  other experience over many years to bring
  successfully to adult fruition (Sally-Ann test).

http//www.ted.com/talks/rebecca_saxe_how_brains_m
ake_moral_judgments.1html
8
What Is Enculturation?

• Enculturation is the process whereby an
  individual learns the accepted norms values of
  an established culture.
• Enculturation establishes a context of boundaries
  accepted behavior that dictates what is is
  not permissible. It can happen consciously or
  unconsciously.
• Enculturation is NOT Acculturation, which is the
  exchange of cultural features that results when
  foreign cultures come into first-hand contact.

Arab West Foundation, Enculturation services.
9
How is Enculturation accomplished?

• 1. Direct teaching mostly by parents when a
  child is told to do something because it is right
  or not to do something that is bad.
• what do you say? (please)
• 2. Observational learning watching others,
  emulating behavior (Attention, Retention,
  Reproduction Motivation).
• Learning different slang in different situations.
• Mirror neurons fire both when an animal acts
  when an animal observes the same action.
• 3. Enculturation also happens unconsciously.
• All happen simultaneously all the time.

10
Six parts of culture that are learned

• 1. Technological what it is how to use it
• 2. Economic what is the system of trade
• 3. Political How is it structure function
• 4. Interactive How do you interact
• 5. Ideological Views of morals, norms, etc
• 6. World View Religion Nationalism
• Enculturation begins soon after birth with the
  development of self-awareness.

11
Culture Social Identity

• Culture also influences what we hold as the most
  positive information about ourselves (Tashakkori,
  1993).
• One major difference in world culture is that of
  the collectivist identity versus individualist
  identity.
• Individualist cultures tend to promote the
  individual.
• Collectivist gives priority to the aims of the
  group.

West Brain, East Brain
Collectivist vs. Individualists Video
http//www.youtube.com/watch?v4uFa0hBPqOY
http//www.newsweek.com/id/233778
12
Two Patterns of Child Rearing

• Dependence training - promotes compliance in and
  favors keeping individuals within the group.
• Independence training - emphasizes individual
  independence, self-reliance, and personal
  achievement.

13
The Role of Social Norms

• Our societies and cultures also help shape our
  self concept with the production of social norms.
• A norm is an understood, but not legally binding,
  rule for determining which behavior is acceptable
  and expected. Norms provide guides for proper
  and appropriate behavior (tipping a waiter, gift
  giving on birthdays, not farting in public,
  saying please thank you, wearing hats inside,
  etc).
• Each cultural group will evolve its own norms for
  behavior among its group members.
• These unwritten rules are absorbed by our
  self-concept and become part of our self.

14
Are Different Personalities Characteristic of
Different Cultures?

• Every culture emphasizes certain personality
  traits as good and others as bad.
• The statistical concept of modal personality
  recognizes that any human society has a range of
  individual personalities, but some will be more
  typical than others based on cultural practices.
• Since modal personalities may differ from one
  culture to another and since cultures may differ
  in the range of variation they will accept, it is
  clear that abnormal personality is a relative
  concept.

15
Ethnic Psychoses

• Mental disorders specific to particular ethnic
  groups.

16
Ethnic Psychoses And Other Culture-bound Syndromes
Disorder Culture Description
Amok Malaya (also in Java, Africa, and Tierra del Fuego) Sudden outbursts of aggression in which the afflicted person may kill or injure others.
Anorexia nervosa Western countries Disorder in which a preoccupation with thinness produces a refusal to eat.
17
Ethnic Psychoses And Other Culture-bound Syndromes
Disorder Culture Description
Latah Malay Fear reaction in middle-aged women of low intelligence who are subservient.
Koro Southeast Asia Fear reaction in which the person fears his penis will withdraw into his abdomen and he will die.
18
Ethnic Psychoses And Other Culture-bound Syndromes
Disorder Culture Description
Windigo Algonquian Indians of Canada and northern U.S. A hunter becomes convinced that he is bewitched.
Kitsunetsuki Japan Victims believe they are possessed by foxes and change facial expressions to resemble foxes.
19
Ethnic Psychoses And Other Culture-bound Syndromes
Disorder Culture Description
Pibloktoq and other Arctic hysterias Circumpolar peoples from Lapland eastward across Siberia, northern Alaska, and Canada to Greenland Victim may tear clothes off, jump in water or fire, roll in snow, try to walk on the ceiling, throw things, thrash about, and speak in tongues.