Identities, Traditional

Traditional Identity and the Findings of Anthropologists

In a strict sense, traditional identities may be defined as those found in small-scale societies based in hunting-gathering, pastoralism, horticulture, or agriculture, in which the outside world is largely or entirely unknown. Anthropologists have provided [Page 851]the fullest on-the-ground portraits of these kinds of identities, through their ethnographic research. Many anthropologists have described identities in pastoral, agricultural, or hunting-gathering societies in which a sense of tradition—of wisdom received from previous generations—has been paramount in shaping how people live and think about their lives. It seems, from this ethnographic record, that in many of these societies, based on ritual and on custom, senses of personal identity are downplayed. Anthropologists have sometimes related that when they ask individuals of such societies what they want in their lives, or what would make them happy, the question may be met with silence and a blank stare. This has led to the formulation that in traditional societies, one plays one's role as dictated by one's stage in the life course and one's gender; there are no personal dreams to be dreamed, except in fulfilling one's allotted role throughout the life course.

Supporting this formulation, it seems clear that there is a fundamental difference in what the individual can know in a traditional society as opposed to in a contemporary society. In traditional societies as defined earlier, the adult individual holds most of the knowledge available in the society as a whole, whereas in contemporary societies, the average individual has only a small amount of the extant knowledge in the world. In today's world, few of us know how to repair our computers, fix our plumbing, and cure our toothaches; few of us know the detailed chronicles of history or of science or of a whole range of other types of knowledge; we may simply “look it up,” or call an expert if needed. Traditional societies, on the other hand, are preliterate; all knowledge must thus be transmitted orally, and so knowledge is both minimal and shared. This difference in the nature of knowledge necessarily has a profound effect on identity. A broad range of personal identity choices cannot exist in a society where every individual knows most of what there is to know in the world, in that identity is largely a given in such a society.

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