The name is absent

□!APTER IV

Tieoretical framework for the study,

RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND HYPOTHESES

Berger and Luckmann¹S (1966) treatise on the sociology of

knowledge, Berger’s article (1971) on identity as a problem in
the sociology of knowledge, Sorokin’s (1947) analysis of group
identity, Erikson’s (1946, 1956, 1959, 1966, 1977) and de Levita’s

(1965) typologies of individual identity will be used to provide

of a sociology of knowledge approach.

4.1 Definition of identity

The following definition of identity is proposed:

Identity is defined as location of the self in a
particular world of meaning, both by the self and
others.

It is a product of interactions between individuals
and social structures, and individuals and others.
Through this location of the self, individuals
recognise their self-sameness and continuity in
time and perceive that others recognise their self-
sameness and continuity.

4.2 Aboriginal identity in the sociology of knowledge

Studies of Aborigines referred to above (p. 5-9) suffer
from the fact that, being Contexted in a climate where assimilation
was held to be the solution to the 'Aboriginal Problem', the
assumptions underlying research projects were almost entirely
assimilationist

The sociology of knowledge provides a structure giving a

different approach. Rather than taking a problem posed, (in
this case a white problem of assimilation of Aborigines into
white society) and analysing it, the issue became one of 'making*

of what it is, questioning the assumptions underlying
the reality to be studied, seeking to discover how and why the

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