ABSTRACT
Although I have been asked to describe the development of my research findings and ideas, I cannot describe what I have done, or how I did it, without explaining why I did it.1 Much of this paper, therefore, will be concerned with intellectual motivations and research strategies rather than with research operations or detailed research findings. Moreover, since I believe that any valid explanation is ultimately historical (genetic, evolutionary, developmental, etc.), a reliable account of why I did what I did cannot begin with my anthropological research, but must rather be rooted in my intellectual history. Hence, I shall first describe the intellectual (and other) interests that brought me to the study of culture and personality, and I shall then discuss one of the themes that, until relatively recently, has run through a great deal of my research. Since I am concerned with explaining the over-determined motivational structures that lie behind research choices and the complex decision structures on which research strategies are based, I do not have space to discuss other themes or to describe my more recent interests.
