ABSTRACT
The text of this chapter was originally a lecture given in Finland in memory of Edward Westermarck. In it I argue that concepts of the person are closely tied to ideas about kinship because these often concern the way a social being is created. I contrast African and European representations, on the one hand, with Southeast Asian representations, on the other. Furthermore, what kind of phenomenon a person is believed to be affects the way history is understood and the way the individual relates to history. Such concerns, which are traditional ones in social anthropology, should, it is argued here, be taken into account by psychologists, who tend to forget about the cultural element when considering their subjects.
