AFRIKANER VALUES IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA: AN ...

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thus secured by the supposed truth thereof.
Concerning aesthetic or attractive values, Coertze (1979:38) differentiates between the
judgement of attractive values in “primitive” cultures and the application of such
judgement in modern cultures. He points out that, under conventional cultural conditions
characteristic of so-called primitive cultures, a stronger attachment to the particular
culture – and thus greater stereotyping of aesthetic behaviour – is found.
The perspective of this study is that a value is a component of human action and exists
within the normative dimension of behaviour. That it is a concept of that which is
desirable; a similar value that exists concurrently in a culture, in the society and in the
groups that are bearers of that culture, as well as in the personalities of the members of
the concerned society and groups.
In a society, humanness (as meant by being a total person) is a complex of social
relationships as Radcliffe-Brown (1940:194-195) pointed out. As more social relations
and value systems are added through life, humanness approaches completion, but the
critical feature is the social relation with the next generation whereby society is
continued into yet another cohort. In societies which define human beings by their place
in a social chain linking past with present, not every individual is seen as fully a person
or even a person at all (Carrithers, Colins and Lukes 1985:138).
The key to comprehension is that the values of the person are embedded in a social
context. In particular these common values relate to the degree of institutionalisation.
The way in which an individual is accorded the moral status of humanness depends on a
variety of social features. As Fortes (1973:17) points out, the concept of the person
relates mortal, transient human beings to a continuing social whole.
A value exists in different forms in the three systems that are constituted by personality,
the social system and culture, while still being the same value, and the same conception
of the desirable. Within culture, a value exists as a criterion for the selection of possible
orientations in situations and in social systems, in an institutionalised form. This means
that, within social institutions, it comprises a norm that specifies the desirable orientation
and the associated actions that apply to particular status roles. Within personality, a value