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HÓLMFRÍÐUR GARÐARSDÓTTIR
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determinant factor in the conception of self, 9 to Martin Heidegger´s
emphasis on being-in-the-world – DASEIN – underscoring indi-
vidual-existential reality and temporality.10 In Heidegger’s formu-
lation, each person is influenced by his/her particular spatial and
temporal situation.11 Consequently, and of most interest for this
study, from the early twentieth century, the subject has been con-
sidered a community of individuals sharing certain basic needs,
rights and responsibilities while theorizing has become more inclu-
sive and appropriate to the context of Central and South
America.12
First, drawing on the work of the French philosopher Jean-Paul
Sartre and his theorizing on blackness in the North American
South, there are those who underscore that each person is responsi-
ble for him- or herself, while others emphasize the self as insepara-
ble from and intertwined with the workings of societal structures
and institutions.13 During the 1980’s, social scientists, such as
Cornelius Castoriadis, attempted to bridge the gap between these
two positions by arguing that no opposition exists between the in-
dividual and society, but that the individual is a social construct
and simultaneously forms society.14 Moreover, in his discussion of
the present-day understanding of identity, Manuel Montobbio un-
derscores that collective identities function like adhesive contracts
9 Chamberlain, Jane and Jonathan Rée (Eds.), “Introduction: Becoming a Philosopher”. The
Kierkegaard Reader. 2001, pp. 13–34.
10 Kellner, Douglas, “Popular Culture and the Construction of Postmodern Identities”, Modernity and
Identity, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1992, p. 141–177.
11 Olafson, Frederick A., “Philosophical anthropology”, https://www.britannica.com/topic/philosop-
hical-anthropology/Modern-science-and-the-demotion-of-mind#ref1011552 [Accessed August
2016].
12 Acebo Ibáñez, Enrique del, Mundo sociocultural y mundo del sujeto. Buenos Aires: EUDEBA. 2015
and Félagsfræði rótfestunnar (sp. Sociología del arraigo). Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan, 2007. See also:
Fagan, Andrew. “Human Rights”, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP – A Peer-Reviewed
Academic Resource), http://www.iep.utm.edu/hum-rts [Accessed August 2016].
13 Latimer, Dan, Contemporary Critical Theory, New York; Hardcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers,
1989, here p. 6. Furthermore, in the context of this study, the following becomes particularly
relevant: “Sartre dealt implicitly with issue of race in many of his works, beginning with Being and
Nothingness. Race relations, especially segregation in the South, figured centrally in his reports
from the United States during two visits after the War (in 1945 and 1946) and were a major topic
of his many writings on colonialism and neocolonialism thereafter.” From “Jean-Paul Sartre” (first
published 2004, reviewed 2011), http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sartre/ [Accessed August
2016].
14 Castoriadis, Cornelius, The Imaginary Institution of Society, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1987. Here p. 3.