Abstract
Before beginning, I would like to thank Dr. Minna Ruckenstein and Professor Jukka Siikala as well as the Finnish Anthropological Society for having done me the honor of inviting me to give this lecture.
 The question I am going to try to answer today concerns all of the social sciences at once. It is:What are the social relations, of whatever kind they may be—political, religious, economic, kinship, etc.—that have the capacity to bring together and to weld into an all-encompassing whole and to endow with an additional, global and shared identity a number of human groups and individuals who thereby form a ‘society’ with borders that are known if not recognized by their neighbor societies?
 The human groups to which individuals belong can be of a great variety of natures: lineages, ‘houses’, clans, orders, castes, classes, local or religious communities, etc.; and an individual usually belongs to several of these groups, each of which provides him or her with one or several particular, specific identities. It is to these identities that is added the global shared identity attaching to all individuals, whatever their particular identity, by the fact of belonging to the same ‘society’, to the same Whole.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
More From: Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.