Habitus

Question 1

What is habitus?

Answer 1

‘the way society becomes deposited in persons in the form of lasting dispositions, or trained capacities and structured propensities to think, feel and act’ Wacquant 2005:316

Question 2

What are some examples of habitus (basic)

Answer 2

Our accents, Our choice of words, How we dress, Our beliefs, Our manners, Our temperament

Question 3

What is Bordieu’s Theory of Habitus?

Answer 3

Material conditions produce class systems which then manifest within a person’s disposition. There is no conscious effort, but rather the reflection of the structures dictating their life.

Question 4

What are some examples of habitus given by Bordieu?

Answer 4

1. Polynesian swimming
2. Inter-generational swimming (i.e. learning to dive before learning to swim back in the day)
3. WW1 English troops unable to use French spades
4. French trumpets out of sync with British marches due to difference of gait.
5. Western response to ‘emotional seizures’ compared to ‘primitive’ societies’

Question 5

Summarise Schiltz 1982 Habitus and peasantisation in Nigeria: a Yoruba case study

Answer 5

1. Before colonialism there was no lineage ranking and thus allowed for social mobility via individual achievement.
   -> per this, Yoruba (and Iganna) groups would act as ‘idile’ (peasant) until they earned enough to become rich through labour.
2. Increase in technical division of labour now means it is difficult to move up and thus idile are stuck where they stand due to long-distance technical trade operated by the non-Yoruba.
3. ‘Durable dispostion’ as the idile mindset is passed from generation to generation thus created a cycle of poverty.