Indigenous Psychology : The Cultural Context Of A Native Culture

Indigenous psychology is concerned with creating and implementing culturally specific practices, concepts and tools for the study, and assessment of human functioning within the context of a native culture. For many non-western countries the inceptions of indigenous psychology are guided by a desire to develop appropriate solutions to psychological and social concerns that are more in sync with its socio-cultural realities and ideologies. As Sinha (1997) explains, “…the indigenous approach has two concerns: that of embedding psychology in specific cultural context, and of establishing a universality of its empirical base and principles” (p. 131). While there is general agreement when defining the parameters in the indigenous approach, concepts related to culture are less defined, vague and often too broad.

Over the past 30 years, indigenous psychologies developed in many different regions of the world and in many different forms. Primarily, each form of indigenous psychology encompassed collective efforts to develop psychological approaches that include the social, and cultural dynamics of indigenous peoples. Therefore, within the context of each country, ideas related to concepts of culture may be relative to the particular society in which the form of indigenous psychology was developed. Allwood (2011) maintains, “[t]he science is a culturally dependent enterprise is normally taken for granted for example in the area of science study and sociological knowledge…” (p. 4). Within the field of indigenous psychology there are varying definitions and concepts related to culture. Given the multiplicity of indigenous psychologies, coalescing a solidified conceptual characterization of culture has yet to be achieved. Even though res...

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...dual politicians, social institutions, the people, the perceived lack of resources comingle to create a culturally specific resurgence of violence. To some degree, the most recent conflict witnessed by the citizens of South Sudan illuminates shared, interactive and linear sequential elements of culture.

While overarching shared elements of Sudanese culture extend beyond incidents of war and conflict, the preponderance of war within the culture have resounding effects on the population as a whole. In this case, the concept of shared culture elements does not ubiquitously imply that those elements are agreed upon by the entire society. However, the enacted behaviors of dominant and subgroups within the population perpetuate and transmit cultural values that rationalizes acts of violence as a form of protest, expressions and impacting the outcome of a collective goal.