ABSTRACT
In thinking about culture and the autobiographical self, we feel tugged in two directions. “Culture” presses us to consider how people are similar, whereas “self” presses us to consider the uniqueness of individual lives. How can such seemingly oppositional concepts be connected in ways that appreciate both personal experience and the press of larger communities? Furthermore, how can the link be made dynamically, so that personal history and cultural values can be viewed as mutually emergent, and contextually, in order to preserve the richness of actual moments when self and culture meet?
