Consumer Culture & Body Modification

Communicative Body: origins of MODERN PRIMITIVISM

As members of Western culture are more constrained by external, impersonal forms of social control, the body has become the singular focus of SELF-CONTROL and IDENTITY. Modern primitivism is a feature of  POPULAR CULTURE in association with renewed concerns about environmental issues as well as a sentimental fascination about so called "primitive" peoples. Call against the destruction of the "environment"

• molding, marking and shaping the body in different cultures signifies STATUS and status changes
• may be permanent or temporary
• body is used as an expressive medium and dressed distinctively to present a spectacular self that expresses a distinct group identity
• against middle-class forms of body conduct
• mostly working class men who first did this
• girls: fashion and makeup (surface and temporary)
• body is a vehicle for fashion to combat decay and deterioration…the body is a vehicle for pleasure and self-expression
• emphasize LUDIC and GROTESQUE in opposition to the dominant culture. 
• piercing
• tattooing
• branding
• TATTOOED BODY
• scarification, tattooing and piercing all overturn ideals of bodily presentation in Western culture and contexts.
• WESTERN: focus on the elaboration of ones own body (contrary to non-Western contexts).
• usually associated with marginal groups. So what does it mean when they are used by those who are not marginals to deliberately mark themselves? (pirates, criminals, social deviants)
• disassociation from those that lead conventional lives
• rite of passage
• women tend to use them more in private contexts and men display them in public contexts
• way to remind oneself of individuality and personal experience in a culture where this is so important and where making distinctions allows you to feel connected. (individuation)
• Way to identify themselves and give them "magical qualities"
• DECORATION & Asthetic
• Pierced body (Western)
• example of the body as an unfinished product
• FASHION 
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• visible as well as intimate parts of the body
• homosexulaization
• fascination with non-Western cultures (modern primitivism)
• a way of signaling discontent with modern society and confronting notions of deviance in Western culture through association with the primitive. (against dominant norms and recaptures the sensual self)
• EXTREME BODIES EXTREME CULTURE (etched cultural aesthetics into the body
•  Nilotic people of Africa: facial scarification is a way to mark ethnic affiliation
• Wodaabe men of northern Nigeria paint their faces in elaborate colorful patterns that are judged as more or less beautiful by their female suitors
• Wodaabe women adorn their faces with permanent tattoos which enhance their beauty and protect them from the evil eye
• Polynesia: body tattoos are a means of ethnic identification and serve to decalre status and rank and relationship

"BODY-MOD" Tourism

• Although many of these practices may seem exceptionally invasive and painful to us, they are seen as rites of passage for young adults. After all, if they can handle the suffering of the modification, they can handle the challenges of being an adult in their community, making us think that bar mitzvahs aren’t so bad after all!

• Body-mod tourism isn’t as rare as you’d think and it’s controversial. Although an influx of tourists has brought wealth to impoverished tribes and attention to cultural practices, some argue it has also led to a deteriorating way of life for many rural people or the cheapening of certain traditions.

Neck Rings

The practice of wearing neck rings originated in Burma with a few small subset groups of the Kayan Tribe. Although the Kayan tribe as a whole was located in what is now Myanmar for hundreds of years, they were forced to flee to Thailand in the sixties and seventies because of military conflict.

Most Kayans lived for a short time along the Thai border in refugee camps and were soon placed in permanent homes by the Thai government. Shockingly, the Kayan women who wear neck rings were singled out of the masses of Burmese refugees and settled in a neighboring camp and have never left. Many sources report that the Thai government did this so the women could be used for tourism purposes, which explains why neck rings are now associated with Thai culture. According to a BBC report, today most of these women are stuck in limbo working at tourist-trap villages, posing for pictures, and are unable to move on due to complicated (and seemingly malicious) bureaucratic Thai refugee laws.

Although you can see these women in their villages around the city of Mae Hong Son on the Burma-Thailand border, be prepared for a tourist trap that may look more like a human zoo than a traditional village.

Lip Plates

Although there are many independent cultures who have at some point donned lip plates, there is only one remaining tribe that still actively practices lip stretching: the Mursi tribe in Ethiopia. According to tradition, six months to a year before a girl is to be married, a small incision is made in the middle of her bottom lip and a stick is put in. Slowly over time, larger disks are inserted until her lip is stretched big enough to be used for a basketball hoop. In addition, many girls have their two lower teeth knocked out to accommodate the huge plate.

Rationale behind this practice is unclear to anthropologists. Other than the inherent disfigurement and pain, many Mursi women have trouble speaking normally and often drool since they essentially have no lip or teeth on the bottom of their mouth. One Darwinian-ish theory is that the practice was started so women could prove their strength, and therefore worth, as wives and mothers. The bigger the lip plate, the more physical strife the woman is able to withstand, and the stronger she’ll be as a partner to her husband.

Although there are many unknowns about lip plates, one thing is for sure: Mursi men seem to love it. For the women of this tribe, getting a lip plate is the only hope they have for a decent marriage: the bigger the lip, the more desirable a woman is, and the more cattle the groom’s family has to “trade” for him to get a wife.

Along with limited marriage potential if they chose a life sans lip plate, Mursi women also face added pressure from the outside world to continue with the practice. Currently the Mursi struggle to survive economically and face drought and worsening agricultural conditions. Ironically, their lip plates and reputation as an “untouched” African people have led to an exceptional amount of tourism in their home in the Omo Valley of Ethiopia and are currently helping to sustain the Mursi financially.

San Yak Tattoos

They may be extra trendy these days (think Angelina’s vertical tattoo that runs down her back), but San Yak tattoos have adorned the holy and superstitious for hundreds of years in Thailand and Cambodia. Traditionally the tattoos are a mix of Buddhist prayers, images, and shamanistic spells that have survived from the pre-Buddhist, Hindu religion in Southeast Asia.

Because of the religious nature of these tattoos, holy men, or even Buddhist monks themselves, will tattoo people using the traditional method of long metal needles, tapping ink deep under the skin. The level of detail the tattoo artists are able to achieve is stunning given the rudimentary tools, but the popularity of these tattoos aren’t just for their aesthetic appeal. Like religious amulets, San Yak tattoos are believed to ward off evil spirits and give their owner ridiculous amounts of luck. The more the better, like St. Christopher medals.

You can spot San Yak tattoos on monks and regular people alike, especially in Southeast-Asian countries, whose inhabitants need a little luck. Perfect example: the tattoos are incredibly popular among many Muay Thai boxers.

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Nose Plugs

The Apatani tribe lives in the district of Arunachal Pradesh, India. The tribe keeps no written records, but they do have an exceptionally unique way of identifying their women. Traditionally women get face tattoos and distinctive nose plugs at an early age, which they wear for the remainder of their life. According to some anthropologists, they created this practice in order to make the women unattractive to neighboring tribes who might otherwise want to kidnap their super-hot women.

Although this practice has been around for hundreds of years, it’s very quickly losing popularity. Not many women who were born in the eighties and beyond have chosen to get nose plugs, so as the older women of the tribe pass away, so will the tradition.

Scarification

Scarification, or the practice of making permanent scars for aesthetic reasons, is traditional in many parts of Africa. Although Westerners might balk at the thought, many tribes in Northeast Africa see being marked as a rite of passage. Scars can denote age, social status, wealth, or increase a person’s sexual attraction. (Really, are fake boobs that much less of a body modification?) Most scarification is made in repeating, geometric patterns by cutting the skin, and then rubbing ash or acidic juice into the wound to assist in creating a lasting scar. Marks on the face, back, belly, legs (pretty much anywhere) are common.

The lip-plate sporting Mursi tribe also liberally practices scarification, and for this practice both men and women are invited to join in the fun.

Nuer people in Sudan are famous for their geometric facial scarification. They receive scars as a mark of adulthood in the tribe. It is believed if they can sustain this process, they are ready to be respected as grown ups. Different subsets of the Nuer tribe make their own unique markings; certain subsets draw six lines across young men’s foreheads, while others utilize geometric designs to make their mark.

Foot Binding

The ecstacy experienced by Chinese men upon seeing or fondling a lotus foot was the equivalent of that experienced by Western men  upon seeing or fondling a female breast.The Chinese also believed however that foot binding had a special bonus, namely it caused layer after layer of folds to develop in the vagina, resulting in a supernatural exaltation during intercourse. The inability to walk also supposedly caused women's thighs to become sensually heavier and caused the genital region to tighten.

this was a symbol of HIGH STATUS, since a family always wanted their daughters feet to be as small as possible, but had to weigh this against practicality, since the economic well being of the family may be dependent upon her ability to work.

Manufactured Bodies

• Cosmetic Surgery in the West
• breast enhancement, concealment and reduction
• sexual organs enhanced by both sexes (labia size decreased and penis size increased)
• collectively express conformity to an ideal body type

• Cosmetic Adornment in the West
• tanning
• nail salons
• hair salons
• full body waxing

Tanned Body

• two competing frames for interpretation
• the medical frame
• sees the medical dangers of tanning in relation to skin cancers
• the seduction frame
• sees the value of tanning as symbolic capitol for the sexualized body (METAPHORICAL EXCHANGE VALUE OF A TANNED BODY)
• tanning as healthy, fit and sexy
• only the tanned WHITE body matters
• gendered, but men can tan if they are
• metrosexual and concerned with their looks and grooming
• gym rats and concerned with how their muscles look
• Frames inform one another but show from a symbolic interactioninst perspective how one's body is viewed from the perspective of how others view it when it is displayed.
• features & factors
• pre-tanning for display on special occasions
• pre-tnning because it makes you feel skinny (female) or shows off your muscles (male)
• body is constantly changed through technological advances which blur the line between "natural" and "fake"
• natural is still better, but not always desired

EXTREME BODIES & EXTREME CULTURE

• a particular set of practices, ideas, images and commodities that surfaced in the last decades of the twentieth century that revolved around the ideas of physical engagement, competition and rick (phenomenological approach to analysis)
• extreme bodies engage in practices and regimes that push beyond the mundane and acceptable. Extreme bodies are the product of excessive physical modification, transformation, or activity, and are also aware of , and accept the physical risks that come with radical carnal engagement. (experience in the body)
• cultural context
• generation x: grappling with an uncertain future
• extreme sports-X games
• about an embodied experience that involves an intense engagement of the senses that is beyond the ordinary
• heightened level of physical engagement in the world.
• proposes that the body and the mind must be awakened to achieve a type of embodied metaphysical nirvana
• lust for life is implied
• the body is an entity which is a project. We are responsible for the shaping of this project through various embodied experiences. (no pain, no gain)
• site for reinvention, renovation and modification
• Not all bodies are alike or have the same capacity for experimentation (the body is a biological, social, psychological and symbolic entity)
• race
• gender
• disability
• physical characteristics
• age
• health
• Bodies are constantly expected to be upgraded
• especially for women
• New views of the body are influenced by
• interiorized body
• CSI
• spectacularized body (before and after)
• the swan
• extreme makeover
• biggest loser
• I want a famous face