Lecture 1/22: Culture & The Human Body

We tend to think of the mind and body as separate in western culture, but people experience and engage with the social world from an embodied perspective. This is true EVEN when we are interacting "virtually".
How?

The physical characteristics of our bodies, our mannerisms, shape, habits and movements, contribute to and shape our perceptions and interactions with others in everyday life.

• EMBODIMENT (how we see the world and act in it through our bodies)
• BODILY CONDUCT: our knowledge of and ability to conduct the natural urges of our bodies in socially appropriate ways
• BODILY BETRAYALS: When we fail to do this.
• burping, farting, vomiting, expressing inappropriate emotion, fainting- these break the flow of social interaction and we must work hard to REPAIR that flow.
• BODY WORK: including body maintenance these are acts that are associated with grooming and hygiene, diet, and exercise... so that we may present ourselves as viable social actors. 

The norms of bodily conduct and appearance that accompany everyday life are socially shaped, change over time and vary from culture to culture.

The Basis of Western Beliefs About The Body & Mind

THE CARTESIAN BODY

• claims a real (ontological) distinction between the mind and the body and sees the MIND as more important to understanding the self and its place in society. Mind and body are distinct, body is subordinate to mind. 
• The body is a "machine" in which the self (mind) is located
• the mind is the source of thought through which the self is produced via cognitive rationalization and through which we view the world external to us.
• VISION is a privileged sense that connects the self with the physical and material environment in which the self is located. bodily sensation is NOT seen to influence or contaminate perception.
• PHILOSOPHICAL DUALISM
• BODY=NATURE=FEMININITY; MIND=CULTURE=MASCULINITY (metaphor)

THEORETICAL PARADIGMS WE WILL EXPLORE IN THIS CLASS

• FEMINISM & the body
• PHENOMENOLOGY
• RELATIONAL BODY
• UNCERTAIN BODY
• CORPOREALITY/EMBODIMENT & the "lived experience"

COMMON THEMES

• The body is more than a physical or material frame, but is largely understood as inseparable from culture and society
• the body has increasingly become the target of political control, rationalization and discipline
• the body is not a material object on which social and political forces operate, but rather forms the basis of social experience and action.
• The body is LIVED, EXPERIENCED and done so in a way that that is profoundly INFLUENCED BY SOCIAL PROCESSES and SHAPED BY CULTURE!
• the human body is also a REPRESENTATION OF HUMAN CULTURE

CULTURE AND THE BODY

• Human Body is like a cultural "MIRROR"
• mark gender, age, profession, ethnicity, etc.
• Even natural body processes are mediated by culture. 
• menstruation
• aesthetics
• body expectations throughout the lifecycle.
• PLAY is the learning of the fundamental skills of body control, social interaction, and the acceptable bound sod behavior and values of social life.