STREGKODER, SPAREGRISE OG BARNEDÅB: Det islandske selv i entreprenørskab og navngivning

Resumé

This article departs from the dualistic theory pre-eminent in anthropology that

there is a western and a non-Western notion of personhood: the „individual“

versus the „dividual“ (Strathern 1988). Recently, attempts are made to transcend

this dualism by emphasizing rationality and individualism in non-Western notions

of personhood, while the Western individualistic and rational notion of personhood

is left unchallenged. The author integrates analyses of Icelandic entrepreneurship

and of namegiving of Icelandic children and argues that the Icelandic notion of

personhood simultaneously allows for being „individual“ and „dividual“. Thus,

the article challenges established conceptions of the Western person.