Week 4- Barker Chapter 8 (Subjectivity and Identity)

The essence of this chapter is that we are defined by our culture. This chapter helps to recognize that concepts of truth are influenced greatly by social environment. However, if there is no essential cultural or biological anthropological definition, how do we uphold "strategic essentialism" (Barker 2003, 244). Barker feels that strategic essentialism can be valuable "for the improvement of the human condition" (Barker 2003, 244). Progress in this direction seems unlikely if we are to take Barker seriously in that no one truly knows the essential nature of the human. Who is to define what improvement is?