Psychological Anthropology

Abstract

The article begins with introductory remarks and an overview of the field. Mention is made of the various perspectives within psychological anthropology (i.e., cultural psychology, ethnopsychology, cross-cultural studies of child development, psychoanalytic anthropology, evolutionary anthropological psychology, and cognitive anthropology). It is noted that theoretical controversy in the field often turns on whether to emphasize universal human psychology or local culture. The next two sections provide brief reviews of the history of the field, viz., culture and personality in North America and social anthropology's encounter with psychoanalysis in Britain. There follows a review of contemporary psychological anthropology proper, with emphasis on key areas of ongoing controversy, including human nature, incest aversion, child development, the Oedipus complex, self and emotion, linguistic determinism, discourse, embodiment, moral reasoning, and cultural symbolism. Here again, tensions between psychological and cultural explanation, universalism and particularism, are evident. The final section reviews the basic theoretical dilemma and controversy in psychological anthropology and mentions contemporary efforts to resolve them, especially the turn toward discourse-centered ethnography and the renewal of social anthropology's encounter with psychoanalysis.