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.
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