印度的自我與他者：印度的個人與集體認同

The Indian Self and the Others: Individual and Collective Identities in India

本文首先談及具有影響力的西方傳統建構出「亞洲」和「亞洲人」，以與「歐洲」和「歐洲人」明顯區分。接著討論就以文化為特定對象的理解而言，與「自我」相關的理論已被證明乃是瞭解自己本身社會與異國社會中的「自我」與「他者」的組成要素。然後將「西方人」對亞洲人觀點中的某些主要特徵與印度教和佛教有關「自我」的理論兩相對比，並且說明將「亞洲人」建構成截然不同的「他者」的傾向如何導致許多西方學者既無法了解印度諸種有關「自我」理論的關鍵層面，又不能欣賞印度與亞洲思想傳統的浩瀚，不能理解亞洲是一個大體上同質的文化領域。最後，則討論到為何更進一步透徹分析文化間與文化內部有關「自我」的理論可以彰顯社會學與心理學的重要角色：這些理論可能在文化之間彼此邂逅的歷史及政治上扮演要角，同時可能成為影響印度與其他社會持續努力達到集體認同的因素。

Starting from the influential Western tradition of constructing 'Asia' and the 'Asians' as distinctively different from 'Europe' and the 'Europeans,' the author discusses how theories about the 'self' have proven to be constitutive for culturespecific understandings of the self and the other in one's own and in foreign societies. By contrasting some of the main characteristics of 'Western' views of Asians with Hindu and Buddhist theories about the self, he then shows how the tendency to construct 'Asians' as distinct others has resulted in many Western scholars' failure a) to understand key aspects of Indian self-theories and b) to do justice to the vast spectrum of traditions of Indian and Asian thought that do not conceive of Asia as a more or less homogenous cultural sphere. Finally, the author discusses how a more thorough analysis of intercultural and intracultural self-theories can shed light on the crucial sociological and psychological role such theories can play in the history and politics of intercultural encounters as well as on the factors involved in India's and other society's ongoing effort to achieve a collective identity.