Person. Materials for Analytical Dictionary of Anthropology

Abstract

The problem of conventional determining of the basic anthropological terms is posed. The author argues that the development of contemporary knowledge of man is impossible unless some work on clarifying the key terms of anthropology is made. An important component of terminological reflection is a historical and etymological analysis of the terms. Such an operation is demonstrated by an example of a retrospective study of the term "person", which in Greek culture literally corresponds to the word πρόσωπον, and in the Latin tradition - to the word persona. It is shown that the range of meanings of the Greek word was formed by the emphasis on the appearance, face and theatrical roles, while its Latin equivalent covers a person in a legal and grammatical senses as well. These cultural and linguistic facts require to put the ancient "person" out of the personalist philosophy and of the personality-oriented anthropology.