Lecture 5 Helman

H E L M AN 2025/10/31 1 The body, anatomy and physiology.

Scheper-Hughes & Lock: Anthropology of the body 2025/10/31 2  “The body as simultaneously a physical and symbolic artifact, naturally and culturally produced, anchored in a particular historical moment”  Four bodies – individual body, social body, and body politic, the mindful body  Separate but overlapping units of analysis  different theoretical approaches  phenomenology, structuralism and symbolism, post-structuralism (practice theory – structure & agency).

The four bodies 2025/10/31 3 Individual body: lived experience of the body-self, body, mind, matter, psyche, soul Social body: representational uses of the body as a natural symbol with which to think about nature, society, culture.

2025/10/31 4  Body politic: regulation, surveillance, & control of bodies (individual & collective) in reproduction & sexuality, in work & leisure, in sickness & other forms of deviance  Mindful body (body self/ embodiment): most immediate, proximate terrain where social truths and social contradictions are played out as locus of personal and social resistance, creativity, and struggle emotions form mediatrix between the individual, social and political body, unified through the concept of the 'mindful body.'.

The body as cultural 2025/10/31 5 The cultural setting in which we grow up teaches us how to perceive and interpret the many changes that can occur over time in our own bodies — and in the bodies of other people..

2025/10/31 6  We learn how to differentiate e.g.:  a ‘young’ body from an ‘aged’, one,  a ‘sick’ body from a ‘healthy’ one  how to define ‘a fever’ or ‘a pain’, a feeling of clumsiness’ or of ‘anxiety’  how to perceive some parts of the body as ‘public’ and others as ‘private’; how to view some bodily functions as socially acceptable and others as morally unclean.

In short 2025/10/31 7 Concepts of body image can understood through: 1. Shape, size, clothing and the surface of the body 2. Inner structure of the body 3.The functioning of the body.

2025/10/31 8  All three are influenced by social and cultural background and influences can have important effects on the health of the individual.

Shape, size, clothing and the surface of the body 2025/10/31 9 This includes information about  Gender  social status,  occupation and membership of certain groups (e.g both religious and secular).

2025/10/31 10  bodily gestures and postures,  The body languages of, for example, doctors, priests, policemen and sales people are very different from each other, and convey different types of messages to other people..

Clothing 2025/10/31 11  Is also of particular importance in signalling social rank and occupation E.g. USA designer clothes and jewels are worn as displays of wealth and being fashion conscious The white coat of a lab technician represents cleanliness/ hygiene Scrubs on a doctor in a hospital indicates a social function as well as membership of a prestigious occupational group, with its own specific rights.

Beliefs about how the body is constructed are based on: 2025/10/31 12  Historicised local ideas  Books and magazines  Personal experience  Theorizing..

2025/10/31 13  The importance of this ‘inside-the-body’ image is that it influences people’s perception and presentation of bodily complaints. It also influences their responses to medical treatment.  Conceptions of what lies inside the body are not static, however. They can vary with certain physical and psychological states and seem to vary with age..

Functioning of the body 2025/10/31 14  Ideas about body’s structure can have clinical importance and ideas about how it functions are significant in their effect on people’s behaviour.  Beliefs/ideas about function usually deal with one or more interrelated aspects of the body:  Its inner working  The effect on these of outside influence such as diet and environment.

2025/10/31 15  The nature (and disposal) of by-products of bodies such as faeces, urine and menstrual blood  In ancient Indian system, there are e.g complex concepts of the physiology of the body that equate health with balance.

Common conceptualisations of the body: the plumbing model 2025/10/31 16  Body conceived as series of hollow cavities/chambers, connected with another, and body’s orifices by series of pipes/ tubes.  Major cavities usually ‘chest’ and stomach’ - almost completely fill thoracic abdominal spaces respectively  Plumbing model does not necessarily cover all aspects of body’s physiology and anatomy, but mostly deals with respiratory, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and genito- urinary functions of body..

2025/10/31 17  Is not coherent or internally consistent system, but rather series of metaphors used to explain the body’s functioning.  Often different physiological systems are lumped together if they occur in the same area.

Body as machine 2025/10/31 18 Includes idea that individual parts of the body, like parts of a car, may fail or stop working, and need to be replaced. Modern transplant surgery, with usage of organ transplants (heart, lungs, liver, kidney, nerves, skin, bone, larynx and cornea) Various prostheses (artificial joints, bones, arteries, heart valves and teeth monitors in obstetrics).

Balance and imbalance 2025/10/31 19 Many cultural healing systems postulate that illness is brought about by imbalances in body E.g hot/cold Yin/yang.

Disabled body 2025/10/31 20 Concepts of disability is a bodily impairment Disability is also socially constructed – can creates categories of people who are deemed dependent and who are marginalised and/or stigmatised Who is seen as disabled also depends on social, cultural, economic and historical context.

Body in pregnancy 2025/10/31 21  Rituals and taboos surrounding pregnancy serve both to mark transition and protect mother and unborn/fetus during dangerous period  If the pregnant woman saw something that frightened her — the child might be born resembling that object  Beliefs related to the effect of particular types of food on fetus  Snow points out that some of these dietary beliefs may be dangerous in pregnancy.

2025/10/31 22  Beliefs about the state of the uterus during pregnancy can affect a pregnant woman’s health.  Some understand uterus as a hollow organ that was ‘tightly closed’ during pregnancy to prevent the loss of the fetus.  One woman believed that pregnant women could not contract venereal disease (and therefore did not need to take precautions against it), as during pregnancy ‘the uterus is closed and germs cannot enter.

Beliefs/ ideas about blood 2025/10/31 23  Experience of blood — as a vital liquid circulating within body, and which appears at the surface at times of injury, illness, menstruation or childbirth — provides the basis for lay theories about a variety of illnesses.  In general, these illnesses are ascribed to changes in: ➢ Volume (‘high blood’, due to too much blood), ➢ Consistency (‘thin blood’, causing anaemia),.

2025/10/31 24 ➢Temperature (‘hot illnesses’ caused by ‘heat in the blood’ in Morocco), qualih,’ (‘impurities’ in the blood, from constipation), or ➢Polluting power (menstrual blood causing ‘weakness’ in men)..

Conclusions 2025/10/31 25  “The body as simultaneously a physical and symbolic artifact, naturally and culturally produced, anchored in a particular historical moment”  A number of case studies in the chapter: Please read them!.