Csordas – Embodiment and Cultural Phenomenology (142 in Weiss)
phenomenology |fiˌnäməˈnäləjē|noun Philosophy the science of phenomena as distinct from that of the nature of being.• an approach that concentrates on the study of consciousness and the objects of direct experience.
-Csordas cites Leenhardt, anth who studied the Canaques- one informant believed that the europeans brought the concept of the body to them. Prior to Euro dominance the body was neither subject or object (144)
Important basic questions Csordas asks (144):
- is the body a determinant object, or must it somehow be considered a subject as well?
-is biology itself determinant, or does it somehow change along with out knowledge of it?
- if we object to the idea that the body is a tabula rasa upon which culture inscribes its meaning, should we base that objection on the argument that biology gives us disposition and temperament prior to culture, or on the argument that the body is never a tabula rasa because it is always already cultural as well as biological in the first place?
Leenhardt’s work suggests- “the person as a cultural category depends on the way people inhabit their bodies, perhaps other domains of culture are grounded in bodiliness.” (144)
“the body, then, as a biological, material entity and embodiment as an indeterminant methodological field defined by perceptual experience and by mode of presence and engagement in the world” (145)
- text metaphor- body as text, inscription of culture on the body, reading the body (146)
-Csordas describes Merleau-Ponty- “perception is basic bodily experience, where the body is not an object but a subject, and where embodiment is the condition for us to have any objects- that is, to objectify reality-in the first place” (147). “Culture does not reside only in objects and representations, but also in bodily processes of perception by which those representations come into being. These creative processes are closely bound up with intentionality…. ”semiotics gives us textuality in order to understand representation, phenomenology gives us embodiment in order to understand being-in-the-world.”
studying culture and self in terms of embodiment, just as we can study culture and self in terms of texuality – “paradigm of embodiment” see Csordas 1990
Research direction from Csordas:
How to study embodiment- “there is no special kind of data or method for eliciting such data, but a methodological attitude that demands attention to bodiliness even in purely verbal data such as written text or oral interview.” “Embodiment is neither about behavior nor essence per se, but about experience and subjectivity, and understanding these is a function of interpreting action in different modes and expression in different idioms” (148).
-studying embodiment isn’t limited to disease- teaches about broader issues of self, emotion, religion, meaning, transformation, social interaction, institutional control of experience, and the human interface with technology (149)
-cites Michael Jackson 1989- his “analysis of initiation rituals and bodily metaphors illustrates the theme ‘that ideas have to be tested against the whole of our experience-sense perceptions as well as moral values, scientific aims as well as communal goals”‘(1989:14)
-”reflexive- author figures into the text in a self conscious way and teh text includes a dialogue with the voice of the indigene”
embodiment = shift from representation > being-in-the-world
-perhaps best elaborated in the cultural study of health
TOWARD A CULTURAL PHENOMENOLOGY- to flesh out a methodological standpoint to analyze culture and self from the standpoint of embodiment.
- somatic modes of attention: “culturally elaborated ways of attending to and with one’s body in surroundings that include the embodied presence of others. examples: ritual healing where healers come to know about health of patients through direct inspiration not being told. Healer may feel heat, see things, or hear things. (151)
-embodied imagery- can be visual, kinesthetic, proprioceptive, aditory, olfactory imagery. often linked. gives example of catholic healer who laid hands on man’s head with brain tumor and felt the tumor shrinking under his hands and also had an image of it shrinking (i’ve heard similar stories with reiki). “this example highlights the intimate connection between touch and sight in a way that appeals directly to the notion of embodiment as the existential ground of culture and self” (154).
- “deployment of senses and sensibility, not only their content, is emphatically cultural” (155)
- 155 – embodied metaphor
- 155 – cites Kirmayer (1992: 380) “bodily metaphors are often enactive rather than representational, and that embodied meaning is to be found primarily in “modes of action or ways of life”
questions and thoughts:
- talk to Jasmin about phenomenology, still a bit confused about the concept.
- definitely need to look at Csordas’ book Embodiment and Experience
- look more into concept of “embodied metaphor”- Jenkins and Valiente 1994 (“Bodily Transactions of the Passions” in Csordas Embodiment and Experience) describe women experience of intense heat somewhere between physical burning and emotional anger/fear. This reminds me of the physical discomforts that are linked to emotional descriptions by yoga practitioners. Could this become the major point of focus of my research? I have experienced this back pain, i can talk to GV about her should pain, AH has experienced this in backbends with chest pains. GPen has talked about this in her chest. Probably many others have stories.
- look for Kirmayer 1989 “Mind and Body as Metaphors” in Lock Biomedicine Examined. or 1992 “The Body’s Insistence on Meaning: Metaphor as Presentation and Representation in Illness Experience” Med Anth Quart 6:323-46
