Anthropology of the Body

Organismo e determinazione: il corpo nella dottrina della scienza di Fichte

by Giovanni Cogliandro

published in Etica & Politica / Ethics & Politics, XIII, 2011, 2, pp. 80-110

The essay is focused on J.G. Fichte‟s wide elaboration on the concept of body, mainly in the years from 1796 to 1799.... more The essay is focused on J.G. Fichte‟s wide elaboration on the concept of body, mainly in the years from 1796 to 1799. The point of view of transcendental philosophy is analyzed as a possible alternative both to the reductive empiricism and to the different forms of ideal-ism, by means of the concept of articulated and organized body. Further, I propose these concepts as useful tools for the analysis of some contemporary theories of perception (e.g., McDowell‟s and Brandom‟s).

Dôgen no “shinshin ichinyo” — chôetsuronteki tachiba kara no ichi kôsatsu.

by Raji C. Steineck

Published in: Ningen sonzai ron 9 (2003). Kyoto: Kyôto daigaku daigakuin ningen
/kankyô gaku kenkyûka sôgô ningen gakubu “Ningen sonzai ron” kankôkai, pp. 73-88.

Dôgen no “shinshin ichinyo” — chôetsuronteki tachiba kara no ichi kôsatsu.

by Raji C. Steineck

Published in: Ningen sonzai ron 9 (2003). Kyoto: Kyôto daigaku daigakuin ningen
/kankyô gaku kenkyûka sôgô ningen gakubu “Ningen sonzai ron” kankôkai, pp. 73-88.

The truth of the body: the liberating role of physical (and mental) boundaries in asubhabhāvanā

by Giuliano Giustarini

Rethinking Human Nature and the Place of (Wo)Man in the world: Anthropology between Philosophy and Science. A Manifesto

by Giacomo Pezzano

We are knowing more and more about (Wo)Man, but the determination of her/his nature is still problematic: asking «What... more We are knowing more and more about (Wo)Man, but the determination of her/his nature is still problematic: asking «What is (Wo)Man?» is paradoxically possible only in the space left open by (wo)man’s erasure. Whatever human nature is, (wo)man wants to know her/himself, because if (s)he does not know who (s)he is, (s)he can not know where to go: moving from hominitas to humanitas requires a definition of (wo)man’s nature, of her/his «place» in the world, in view of describing ex-istence as a modulation of the «World Openness» and an attempt to find a way of articulate the possibilities, as intrinsically «medial» and «modal» since it is founded on «referral» and «relationship with the outside»

Cuerpo, sujeto, persona: Rodeo etnológico a la ética y la política de las tecnologías reproductivas

by Daniel Alberto Alegrett Salazar

Nociones de cuerpo, sujeto y persona fundamentarían debates éticos-políticos sobre lastecnologías de reproducción... more Nociones de cuerpo, sujeto y persona fundamentarían debates éticos-políticos sobre lastecnologías de reproducción asistida (ART). Éstas encarnarían promesas y amenazas para la“vida humana”. El desarrollo de las ART resolvería la infertilidad, superaría obstáculos a la procreación y satisfacería el deseo de familia. En un contexto tecno-científico, tienen una posición en el mercado y los regímenes de poder. Participarían problemáticamente en procesos de producción de individuos y relaciones. Reemplazarían al parentesco, unaimaginación moral para la que la persona es una especificación. Tal impacto sugeriría undesvío etnológico en la discusión. El registro etnográfico contextualizaría y recontextualizaríalas nociones de cuerpo, sujeto y persona. Recupero la etnología clásica del parentesco como principio de organización y recojo las intenciones de los llamados “nuevos estudios de parentesco” de ir más allá de supuestos naturalistas acerca de las relaciones. Trato de problematizar los usos discursivos de lo humano, natural, biológico, psicológico, social ycultural, incorporados en los debates sobre la intervención tecno-científica en la creación delhijo deseado.

Configuring maternal, preborn and infant embodiment

by Deborah Lupton

An increasing literature on the biopolitics of contemporary maternity and on risk society, individualisation and... more An increasing literature on the biopolitics of contemporary maternity and on risk society, individualisation and parenting has demonstrated the increasing emphasis that has been placed upon pregnant women and mothers to take responsibility for the health and welfare of their children. The ideal female ‘reproductive citizen’ is expected to place her children’s health and wellbeing above her own needs and desires. Here the subject positions of the ‘good mother’ and the ‘responsible citizen’ as they are produced through the discourses and practices of neoliberalism intertwine. This paper looks at the convergence of various influential discourses, images, practices and technologies in configuring maternal, preborn and infant bodies in certain ways in the context of neoliberalism. These include such factors as the growing importance of the concept of risk in relation to preborn and infant wellbeing, the extension of infant identity back into preborn bodies, the emergence of the concepts of the foetal and embryonic (and even the preconceived embryonic) citizen, the precious child and intensive parenting and the symbolic concepts of permeability, purity and danger and Self and Other as they relate to maternal, infant and preborn embodiment.

Public Display of Affection: The Making of Marriage in the Venetian Courts before the Council of Trent (1420- 1545). In: The Erotic Cultures of Renaissance Italy, Hg. Matthews- Grieco, S. (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2010), 173-197.

by Cecilia Cristellon

“Beauty and Concepts of the Ideal,” in A Cultural History of the Human Body, Vol. 6: A Cultural History of the Human Body in the Modern Age, Ivan Crozier, ed. (London: Berg, 2010), 127-45. Uncorrected page proofs.

by Christopher E. Forth

Antropologia applicata all'invervento psicoterapeutico. L'esperienza del Centre Georges Dévereux

by Stefano Portelli

Published in (con)textos. revista d’antropologia i investigació social, Número 3. Juny de 2009. Pàgines 84-98. ISSN: 2013-0864
http://www.con-textos.net

Si descrivono qui alcuni dei presupposti teorici e dei dispositivi pratici attraverso i quali si sviluppa l'attività... more Si descrivono qui alcuni dei presupposti teorici e dei dispositivi pratici attraverso i quali si sviluppa l'attività del Centre Georges Dévereux, fondato a Parigi dallo psichiatra Tobie Nathan e orientato alla prise en charge di pazienti migranti. La necessità di evitare le semplificazioni nella traduzione tra le culture ha portato Nathan e il gruppo di professionisti del Centro a elaborare una teoria critica della modernità e del paradigma psichiatrico corrente, a partire dagli insegnamenti dell'antropologia contemporanea e dalla necessità di aiutare la disciplina psicanalitica ad affrontare le sfide della contemporaneità. Per l'antropologia, l'etnopsichiatria rappresenta una possibilità concreta di contribuire alla costruzione di un sapere pratico.

The River, the Oven, the Garden: Female Body and Fertility in a Late Babylonian Ritual Text (in preparation)

by M. Erica Couto-Ferreira

Rivista degli Studi Orientali. Supplementa.
Proceedings of the "Questioni di rito: Rituali come fonte di conoscenza delle religioni e delle concezioni del mondo nelle culture antiche / Eine Frage des Rituals: Rituale als Quelle für unsere Kenntnis der Religionen und Weltbilder in den Kulturen des Altertums (28-30 November 2011, Rome)" conference

It's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt: images of sport in early Iron Age art of Central Europe

by Katharina Rebay-Salisbury

World Archaeology
Volume 44, Issue 2, 2012
Special Issue: The Archaeology of Sport and Pastimes

Physical, competitive activities played an important role in social life in early Iron Age Central Europe. In this... more Physical, competitive activities played an important role in social life in early Iron Age Central Europe. In this paper, the iconography of the most common forms of sport competitions – dumb-bell fighting, chariot racing and horse racing – are followed across temperate Europe. Although these ‘barbarian’ images remain linked to Mediterranean models, differences in materials, technologies and details in the way persons are depicted reveal local variations and divergent cultural connotations of what might have been understood as ‘sport’ in the European Iron Age.

New Interethnic Relations and Native Perceptions of Human-to-Human Relations in Brazilian Amazonia

by pirjo kristiina virtanen

2009. Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 14(2): 332-354.

This article attempts to provide fresh insight into the new kinds of intermediaries found in Amazonian native... more This article attempts to provide fresh insight into the new kinds of intermediaries found in Amazonian native communities, showing how interethnic relations have changed
today’s native communities. The text presents a case study of the Manchineri people living in Brazilian Amazonia, focusing in particular on their spokespeople in rural and urban areas. These intermediaries work to produce equality and relatedness within the new social spaces where negotiations are required. Producing new human perspectives with non-natives is necessary in order to interact in the contemporary Amazonian
interethnic sociocosmologies. However, in the Manchineri community, new social roles have caused widening generational, urban–rural and gender gaps. The social logic
of Amazonian native peoples limits the ways in which specific social roles with special interethnic skills are temporarily adopted, and produces new ways to overcome deepening
social, political, and economic distances.

Seducing Bodies

by Valerio Simoni

Le devenir-animal d’Artaud : Hoc est enim Corpus meum

by Maxime Philippe

Colloque international des études françaises et francophones des XXe et XXIe siècles, San Francisco, 30 mars-2 avril.

Dans un geste de défi à la psychanalyse qui peut rappeler l’attitude de Gilles Deleuze, Antonin Artaud tente de faire... more Dans un geste de défi à la psychanalyse qui peut rappeler l’attitude de Gilles Deleuze, Antonin Artaud tente de faire exploser la « machine anthropologique » (Agamben) qui contrôle et soumet la partie animale de l’homme. Artaud cherche à réintégrer l’animalité dans l’humanité. Mais cette annexion se double d’une exécration des figures animales associées à la possession diabolique expropriante. L’animal représente le double proliférant qui vient dérober la pensée et la vie du poète. Il est à la fois essentiel à l’homme nouveau : il faut devenir-animal pour se libérer et se posséder pleinement. Mais aussi, l’animal est ce qui (se) répète, l’automatisme, dont il s’agit de délivrer le « corps sans organes ».
Je m’intéresserai au rapport entre le Corps sans Organes (décrit par Artaud dans Pour en finir avec le jugement de Dieu) et le devenir-animal. Il s’agira de déterminer le rôle paradoxal que joue l’animal dans la dé-finition du sujet et de mieux comprendre la relation entre ces concepts développés par Deleuze. Cela nous permettra de reposer les questions de la liberté et de la souveraineté du sujet sous-jacentes à ces deux pratiques artistique et philosophique liées.

Blurring the boundaries: breastfeeding and maternal subjectivity

by Deborah Lupton

Precious, pure, uncivilised, vulnerable: infant embodiment in the popular media

by Deborah Lupton

This article is a preprint which has been submitted for publication. It may be cited.

«Finis corporis initium animae»: La qualità morale del nemico nella rappresentazione del corpo. Un excursus tra patristica, epica crociata e odeporica di pellegrinaggio

by Ilaria Sabbatini

in «Micrologus» XX (2012), Estremità ed escrescenze dei corpi / Extremities and excrescences of the body (in corso di stampa).

La visione dei saraceni propria della concezione diffusa a livello popolare, non coincide - è piuttosto ovvio - con le... more La visione dei saraceni propria della concezione diffusa a livello popolare, non coincide - è piuttosto ovvio - con le conoscenze diffuse tra il clero più elevato. Negli ambienti colti non solo l’idea dei musulmani era scevra da sovrapposizioni fantastiche ma il carattere monoteistico e abramitico della religione islamica poteva ben essere conosciuto e ammesso. L’ambito culturale dove maturò l’elaborazione di un’immagine demoniaca dell’islam era pur sempre quello monastico-religioso ma ormai al di fuori dalla sistemazione filosofica cristiana. L’immagine dell’islam come paganesimo contribuiva a giustificare l’idea e ad alimentare l’ideale di crociata. Se i cavalieri crociati diventavano dei nuovi martiri cristiani, i saraceni si potevano aggiustare al ruolo di persecutori e di nemici da uccidere

Replacement Parts: the Fragmentation and Mystification of the Body in the Human Embryonic Stem Cell Debates

by Laura Sikstrom

Corps à corps : théorie et pratique dans l'enseignement d'une technique corporelle traditionnelle. L'exemple du massage thaï au Wat Pho de Bangkok

by Annabel Vallard

published in Aséanie, 2003, 11: 73-120

Cet article examine les modalités de transmission et d'apprentissage des savoirs et savoir-faire liés à cette... more Cet article examine les modalités de transmission et d'apprentissage des savoirs et savoir-faire liés à cette thérapeutique. Essentiellement fondés sur la non-verbalisation et l'expérience, ces procédés d'enseignement m'ont amenée à questionner les théories médicales concernant le corps mises en œuvre dans cette pratique manuelle. C'est la mise en perspective de la pratique et de la théorie qui m'a permis de préciser tout à la fois comment le corps humain est conçu dans ce contexte thérapeutique - de montrer notamment l'existence d'une anatomie en réseau autour d'un pôle central, l'abdomen - et la manière dont cette conception s'articule avec des pratiques corporelles liées à une certains éthique localement définie des relations sociales.

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Theory and practice in the teaching of a bodily healing technique. The example of Thai massage as taught at Wat Pho in Bangkok

Now well-known in the West due to the development of tourism and prostitution, Thai traditional massage, far from being an exotic or erotic gadget, plays a specific part, still not much studied, in Thai therapy. Based on the analysis of hand practice as it is taught in the most reputable massage school in Thailand, this article deals with the process of transmission of the corpus of knowledge related to this therapy, which relies mainly on practical training instead of verbal transmission. This specificity of the teaching process led the author to question the theoretical assumptions which underline the practice, to analyse terminologies used, to (re)define the anatomic concepts which are brought into play in traditional Thai massage - and, in the end, to surmise the reference to a networked anatomy concept in which the abdomen plays the central role.