Anthropology of the Body

Recommended Prerequisites

None.

Teaching Methods

The texts present in the syllabus match the themes covered in lectures. In the practical classes, students will invigorate the discussion in class or working group. The intention is to promote the interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and the building of stronger academic arguments.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course students should have clear notions of the main concepts and categories employed in the theories and practices more relevant in the current context of globalization which mold the way people think and experience their own  body - including the body itself - in its multiple representations and manipulations  as a social and cultural product.

This is an interdisciplinarity course, which will be reflected in the readings. The bibliography ranges from several disciplines: anthropology, medical anthropology, philosophy, history, sociology, cultural studies, political science and gender studies. The course will focus predominantly in the text area central for this area of knowledge, together with ethnographic examples where these instruments are used for analysis.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

The course starts by analysing classical studies: the work of Marcel Mauss; Mary Douglas, the concept of habitus of Pierre Bourdieu; theories incorporating by Csordas and phenomenology of perception Merleau –Ponty; the ideas of Norbert Elias' civilizing process and discipline and microphysics of power of Michel Foucault.

These classical theories are then related to more contemporary interventions. Via the text of Scheper-Hughes and Lock the mind-body split is questioned and its consequences for medical anthropology; the shift experienced at the end of sec. XX refers to the appropriation of the body through tattoos, and other body changes as art are also touched upon.

At the end the relationship between the individual body, nationalism and political ideologies, ending with the importance of technology in the creation of new subjectivities through the interpretations of feminists Haraway are tackled.

Assessment Methods

Continuous assessment
2 mid-term exams: 100.0%

Final assessment
Exam: 100.0%

Bibliography

ALMEIDA, M.V.-. 1996, Corpo Presente, Oeiras, Celta.

Bourdieu,P. 2002, Esboço de uma teoria da prática: precedido de três estudos de etnologia Cabila, Celta, Oeiras.

DOUGLAS, Mary. 1973, “The Two Bodies” Natural Symbols. NY, Vintage, pp. 65-81.

FOUCAULT, Michel.  [1975] 1978. Discipline and Punish. New York: Vintage.

LE BRETON, D. Sinais de identidade. Tatuagens, piercings e outras marcas corporais

MAUSS, Marcel. [1936] 1973. “Techniques of the Body.” Economy and Society, 2: pp. 70-88.

MERLEAU-PONTY, Maurice, [1947]. 1962. Phenomenology of Perception. New York: Routledge.

SYNNOTT, A. 1993, The Body Social. Symbolism, Self and Society. Londres: Routledge.

PORTO, Nuno. 2001 “O Corpo nas Colónias” – Entre ser e estar: raízes, percursos e discursos da identidade, orgs. Maria Irene Ramalho e António Sousa Ribeiro, Porto: Edições Afrontamento.