Ethnographic Data To Explain The Western Concept Of Personhood In The Enlightenment

Personhood and Phenomenology
Overall Plan
Individualism as an idea in the western world is traced back to the of the 18th century intellectual movement called Enlightenment (Nurazzura and etal, 2014; 155). Enlightenment thinkers valued human thinking and scientific reasoning to explain the natural world. They believed that society were ruled by certain principle that can be understood through the application of scientific methods/ principles (Nurazzura and etal, 2014; 156). They criticised the previous held notion that empirical knowledge is consistent. Enlightenment movement provide intellectual with freedom to raise and discuss many philosophical ideas such as the place of man on earth, the relationship between nature and human and person

‘What it is to be a person by showing how culture-dependant personhood is’(…………….). In this regard, Mauss used ethnographic data to explain the idea of personhood or the self. He argued that personhood has a short history. In ancient societies people usually consider themselves as part of a group or what he call a sociocentric concept (Mauss, Marcel as cited in Carrithers, M, 1985). He also argued that the idea of self is a relative concept and socially constructed realty. The western concept of personhood is different from other societies (Mauss, Marcel as cited in Carrithers, M, 1985).
Mauss traced back to the concept of self-back to the roman period (Mauss, 1985). Though, the individual awareness of the concept of self or moi traced back to the roman period in western culture, he argued that it was Christianity who shaped and gave the true meaning of as the self as an independent person (Mauss, 1985). Kant related the idea of self with physiological category (Jennifer, 2009). Whereus, Mauss argued that the idea of self has a socially constructed meaning and that is why we are observing different concept of the self in different culture. The meaning of self/ person hood is specific to a given culture (Mauss,