Analyzing emotions as culturally constructed scripts

In this essay, I comment on some of the points Ratner makes in his paper, ' A Cultural-Psychological Analysis of Emotions' (Ratner, 2000). I suggest th at, as Ratner implies, emotions are best understood as cognitive appraisals of: situations or events that are made on the basis of cultural beliefs an d norms, and that implicate the self, deeply and importantly. I also argue that while it is necessary to distinguish between emotions and bodily feeli ngs, it is equally necessary that emotion researchers recognize that emotio ns are grounded in our physical bodies. I present, very briefly, the indige nous theory of emotions developed in Hindu India and I describe the way emo tions are understood and experienced in the temple town of Bhubaneshwar in Orissa, India, where I do my research.