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Rethinking Depth Metaphors with a Cosmocentric Self: The “Steep” and the “Level” in Akha Emotional Practices
Author(s) -
Tooker Deborah E.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
ethos
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.783
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1548-1352
pISSN - 0091-2131
DOI - 10.1111/etho.12248
Subject(s) - optimal distinctiveness theory , ideology , context (archaeology) , social psychology , sociology , affect (linguistics) , individualism , psychology , aesthetics , politics , history , philosophy , communication , political science , archaeology , law
This study critically engages two analytic constructs: western psychological individualism (with its assumed emotional interiority) and the notion of a generic sociocentric self. By looking at the emotional practices of the Akha of Northern Thailand in a nonmodern context, I aim to show the distinctiveness of a particular type of socio‐ and cosmo‐centric self, that of the “microcosmic,” “level” self, which is not a depth self. This analysis examines the semiotic ideology in which Akha emotions and self concepts are co‐constituted as part of a process of inner/outer alignment with both communal and cosmic templates that affect the flow of a life force energy. In addition, Akha social dynamics resist and deflect from the emergence of a potentially dangerous individualized depth self with emotional interiority and an inner/outer boundary, suggesting an ideological component, and, thus, the relevance of historical and political‐economic contexts in the study of emotional practices.