ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the Lohorung concepts of niwa and lawa, as well as saya, were particularly important in Lohorung discourse about the person. It shows the importance of distinguishing between a notion of person as a collective representation and persons as social agents when looking at self and emotions cross-culturally. A Lohorung woman’s views of self are closely bound up with collectively shared ideas and practices to do with birth and motherhood. The Lohorung view of niwa is central to their knowledge of child development and their view of divisions in the life cycle. Niwa must not only remember and keep a watchful eye on duties, but also on respectful behaviour and posture. Indigenous concepts of the person, as Geertz views them, are part of the cultural system and as such are analytically distinct from social structure and individual psychology.
