The relational ground of emotion: an Ubuntu-based critique of individualist ontology in theories of emotion

Abstract

Emotion studies increasingly recognize the decisive role of cultural context in emotional experience. However, this acceptance rests on an unquestioned ontological assumption that an individual subject experiences emotions, and that culture shapes this subject from the outside. This study aims to ontologically challenge this assumption within the context of small-scale traditional communities in Africa. This study, conducted using critical review methodology and PRISMA 2020 reporting standards, searched the Web of Science, Scopus, and PsycINFO databases. 57 qualitative and theoretical studies meeting the inclusion criteria were evaluated. The included studies address ritual practices, collective identity, social norms, and cosmological belief systems as cultural contexts of emotion. The findings reveal that emotions in these communities are not individual experiences shaped by culture, but relational processes rooted in collective networks. The Ubuntu philosophy principle, “A person is a person through other persons,” ontologically positions emotional experience as inseparable from collective existence. These findings indicate that the individualistic ontology underlying current emotion theories is not only a cultural limitation but also an epistemological constraint of the field. An Ubuntu-centered theoretical model comprising four components (relational ontology, ritualistic-performative emotion production, cosmological appraisal, and decolonial epistemology) is proposed alongside eight testable propositions for future empirical research.