personhood, the body and society

Question 1

food in social life

Answer 1

• cooking, eating, food tavoos, socializing
• natural way to live

food taboos exist; vegans, orthodox hindus, musclisms, jew

Question 2

functionalism

Answer 2

how particular beliefs adn instititons interrelate with each other and contribute to the perpetuation of a sociocultural ssystem

Question 3

durkheimiean sociological theory

Answer 3

society is an organisim or body made up of overaching social intestitions which work togethter to create a whole

• ever social instition can be expalined by itse function; social actors often unauware of this function

Question 4

functional institions

Answer 4

enable general comparisons between society

Question 5

critisims of cuntionalism

Answer 5

1960s onwards:

1. social change; society is not in equillibrium
2. social structures arent all accepted by individuals
3. indivisition; actor ceterend acounts? agency.

Question 6

agency

Answer 6

people know when they act and reflect on their actions

Question 7

brian morris 1994

Answer 7

‘anthropology of self’

personhood; a person is an identitty emobided with concsious and social beings with knowledge and moral agencies

• each person is a cultural category
• some societies dont count kids as persons
• in some socities, you dont need to be human to be a person (animal, spirits, ancestors, environments

Question 8

marcel mauss 1985

Answer 8

‘notions of self and person’

concept of a person defined by social history and varies according to law, religion, custom and social structures

Question 9

case: the tallensi

Answer 9

• meyer fortes conducted ethnograpjy in norther ghana 1977
• personhood is externally oriented here and determined by the position of linear in human/ancestral world

process of becoming a person compelted at death and checked through divinition practices to determine funeral.

idea of ‘lineage’ continuinity; collective productiony of ancestral line; to become a person one must become an ancestory

the ‘yin’= good desnityl each person goverend by ancestors

Question 10

case: homo hierachius

Answer 10

luis dumont 1970: south india 1949

studies caste system in india:

• people rank themselves by casts to determine social roles of marriag, occupation, ritual, etc.

identity is derived by relations of family and caste group to determine self; hence this hierachy is the basis of social interaction as opposed to the ‘whole/colelctive’ society in west.

Question 11

caste system

Answer 11

social stratification wher epeople life in hierachies with different structures determined by ritualistic legetimization

Question 12

‘the individual’

Answer 12

indivudal actors in isolation.

actors= interaction; interactions allow for understanding of agency; RELATIONSHIPS shape individual actions

Question 13

actors

Answer 13

family government political party environment landscapes etc

Question 14

status

Answer 14

socially defined aspect of a person that defines a social relationship and entails rights and duties

• many status at a time can be held by an individual; social expectations attached to each status
• the importance of this status can vary

Question 15

role

Answer 15

dynamic aspect of a status; a persons actual behaviour when occupting a certain status

Question 16

relationships determined by

Answer 16

status and role of a person in society

Question 17

the constitituion of society 1979

Answer 17

anthony giddens;
agency (human deliberate action) and structure (social forces that limit or determine agency)

duality of strucutres; combines individual and social aspects of social life; society exist sin these interactions

Question 18

pierre bourdieu

Answer 18

20th century sociologists;

believed people internalize rules of social conduct by experience sin social fields and reproductive them in a way to maintain hierachy social order

Question 19

taste and distinction 1984

Answer 19

bourdieu investgated french cultural phenomonea of food and art and saw how different social classes had different opinitions and habits

‘class habituts’ as dulcutral capitol

people with more social capital were more ‘equal’ and less discriminated

Question 20

cultural capitol

Answer 20

collection of symbolic elements (taste, posture, habits, clothing) that one acquires in a social class;
it shapes collectivity and creates inequality and defines social mobility

Question 21

habituts

Answer 21

culturally condidionted agency; physical embodiment of cultural capitlo
= enduing and learning actions by experience
-internalize programmes of action

Question 22

janet carsten and individual rights

Answer 22

are we individualistic in the west?

argues that anthropologists rely too much on legal and philosophical frameworks when analyzing personhood in the west

fieldwork on kinship and adoption in the west

Question 23

diane blood case

Answer 23

1996:
-went to court to fight for right to use dead husbands sperm for IVF= led to “Human Fertilization and Embryology or Deceased Fathers Act 2003” to register her children under her husbans name

Question 24

effects of diane blood case

Answer 24

ethical storm (media and government)
argued that it was
1. not natural for a person to concieve child with decased partner
2. no way of gaining informed consent from stephen (dead father)

Question 25

carstens analysis of diane blood case

Answer 25

- legal judgements focus on individual rights of stephen to his sperm - dianes inentiton was to use the father as a relational figure, e.g. potential father due to husband status hence the 'specific rights of an individual' in conflict (legal vs cultural conceptiosn of individual bodies and rights) therefore in the west RELATIONAL identity of personhood exists

Question 26

carstens critique of the person

Answer 26

a. anthropologists look at philoosphy law and thenoloy when defining personhood in west, not at culture b. this lead sot individuals hard to define 3. relatives in west as intrinsic to self (kinship improtance)

Question 27

agnatic/patrinilieal descenet

Answer 27

descencion from common male relative

Question 28

patriolocal and virilocal

Answer 28

living with husbands family post marriage

Question 29

natal

Answer 29

persons birth

Question 30

consangunity

Answer 30

same ancestors as a another person

Question 31

individual relationship to society approaches (study)

Answer 31

1. structural-functionalist sfocus on social insittions and structure 2. actor-center approach

Question 32

individual vs dividual?

Answer 32

social organiziation of particular communities vary

Question 33

revecca empson 2007

Answer 33

'harnessing fortune'; looking how social operations operate en mongolia

Question 34

mongolia

Answer 34

nomadic herders; social relationships exist between people and MATIERAL objects; represent memory and place objects; are static; placed into a chest or on a chest (visible and invisible elements that represent family and relationships) practice of hair cutting; seperates mother and birth as individuals and tie child into agantic family by placing hair into chset of parents home women not consisered as part of aganstic kin; but chidlren can be

Question 35

mckim marriot

Answer 35

'the dividual' indian caste system

Question 36

indian caste system and marriot

Answer 36

theory of substance and transation; people bortn into caste systems iwth work and moral status designiations that affect their positions in social corpealities; presons dont seperate cations and actors; things move within adnb etween actors people in india are hence 'dividuals' units of a person; are lfuid, porouns and translaiton adn connections between internal and external example: husbands and wives eat off same plate

Question 37

marilyn strathern

Answer 37

'the gender of gift' looks at melanesian selfhood

Question 38

melanesian self hood

Answer 38

mode of societal participation; personhood found in RELATIONSHIPS; social effrots of relations makes them a person (microcom) process of becoming a person through social relationships and sharing; not fixed at birth puberty and insututation rituals draw out this personhood

Question 39

anne becker

Answer 39

1994; ethnography on fiji, food, body

Question 40

fijian sense of personhood

Answer 40

fiji; selfhood in relational matrix and social action focuses on BODY no 'ideal body type', but each body instrinsic to self and community e.g. skinny people are less socially involved social processes; carrying embodied in FEEDING; value of bodily weight flucation emphasis of CARE through FOOD sharing in community; BODYd is a COLELTIVE entereprese weight loss is hence a failure and social loss food as sign of hostpitality that defines social relationships e.g. feasting (magisi) exchange and preperaitno of food feasts to mark special occasions that involved the whole community social investment; amount and type of food contributed

Question 41

what did marcel mauss argue about personhood

Answer 41

Marcel Mauss argued that personhood is a social construct that varies over time and place – only in the ‘west’ is the ‘self’ rational and an individual

Question 42

socio-centric personhood

Answer 42

Socio-centric personhood – a role usually given at birth, cannot be separated from society (Meyer Fortes, Louis Dumont)

Question 43

relational personhood

Answer 43

Relational personhood – sense of self develops over time in relation to other people (McKim Marriot, Marilyn Strathern)

Question 44

personhood and philosophy

Answer 44

Personhood is not a given thing – philosophically tricky (Descartes-mind, Tyler-soul).

Question 45

dividual

Answer 45

Dividuals - not bounded autonomous individuals, the individual is not the smallest unit – people are made up of social relationships

Question 46

the west and personhood

Answer 46

The ‘west’ also has more ambiguous notions of personhood (Janet Carsten in After Kinship - organ donation (Lesley Sharp)