Jeepneys: tattoos on the collective soul

Abstract

The interesting scenario and the methodological strategies chosen by Güss and Tuason in their study lead to the understanding that intra-cultural comparisons have an increased potential for connecting social structure and personal values. This point is briefly illustrated by a reflection on family-centeredness in the Philippines and in Brazil. I propose that the `jeepney,' besides its nature as a `material of culture,' could be taken as an example of a field-like, pleromatic iconic sign that is enriched with information and values, since it is, first of all, a vehicle of affective irradiation. In this sense, it is a semiotic device which carries social suggestions and promotes personal actions and goals. Indigenous psychology has the universal task of opening windows to the full and diverse psychological reality existent in the world—to open windows to recognition of otherness. That task is not incompatible with the search for general laws of human psychological functioning.