Abstract

Perception is structured in part by cultural factors, and so the manner in which sense data are integrated with an individual's practical experience has implications for personality organization and for our understanding of cultural logic, embodied experiences of well-being, and discursive aspects of identity and definitions of the self. Using the methodological approach of embodiment and the concepts of habitus and "somatic modes of attention," this study explores culturally constituted categories of sensation which are "performatively elaborated" among Anlo-Ewe speaking people in West Africa. For many Anlo speakers, the five senses of hearing, touch, taste, smell, and sight are not the only sensors recognized and named; additional senses include balance, kinesthesia, and seselelame . Ethnographically addressing the question of how Anlo-speaking people think they perceive, the study raises theoretical questions about the epistemological and ontological implications of alternate sensory orders in understanding psychological functioning and well-being in different cultural groups.