Frog boy and the American monkey

the body in Japanese early schooling

Daniel J. Walsh

pp. 97-109

in: Liora Bresler (ed), Knowing bodies, moving minds, Berlin, Springer, 2004

Abstract

Working within the general framework of cultural psychology (e.g., Bruner, 1996; Cole, 1996; Shweder et al., 1998), I am particularly interested in how the self is differently construed and constructed across cultures (e.g., Kitayama & Markus, 1999, 2000; Markus & Kitayama, 1991). Markus, writing in Shweder et al. (1998), described the self as "where the individual, the biological entity, becomes a meaningful entity—a person, a participant in social worlds. Although the experience of self may appear as primarily individual creations, they are in several ways also cultural and historical constructions' (p. 895). This chapter explores the development of a physical self in Japanese early schooling.