This article emphasises a universal value which both accepts and transcends the cultural division of ‘us’ and ‘them’. Instead of the usual western notion of one body and one self, the self of a Punjabi person is constituted through its relation to a plurality of bodies and is thus principally defined less as a value in itself than in its relation to other persons. To elucidate this, first the conceptual distinctions between the concept of the person and that of the self are pointed out. Second, it is shown that the category of the person in the Punjab is context-sensitive and that it transcends the physical boundary of the body.