ak with her family, her community, and their traditions (pp. 52-53). These examples demonstrate that personality is molded and determined by cultural and racial distinctions as well as by hereditary inclinations.
How children are raised in a society determines their personality, and thus cultural and social distinctions make a great difference in how the personality is formed. A culture is an essential part of the human endowment, It might seem that this discussion is a continuation of an old argument--whether cultural versus biological factors are the more important in the formation of personality; however, this is not the case. It is simply important to recognize that the biological nature of the human organism is such that it depends on the assimilation of cultural influences to make possible the survival and the development of the person. A child is raised in a culture which serves as a mold to shape the rough outlines of his personality, delimit his drives, and provide organization to the manifold ways of adapting to the environment permitted man by his physical endowment. Such delimitation is essential to the realization of individual potential, for man is unable to develop into a harmonious entity without it. The skills and customs of society are necessary for man to develop into anything at all (Lidz, 1968, pp. 13-14).
Different ethnic groups have patterned their lives and their customs in ways that are amazingly diverse, and some of these ways are almost beyond the imagination of people from some other culture. However, there are some patterns that must be filled by all cultures, and a look at these is necessary first. No society can survive for long without considering the biological make-up of its members. No society can neglect the total dependency of the newborn, as an example, or the sequence of biological maturation of the child, or the presence of two sexes. Certain small societies have tried to ignore ...