personhood, the body and society Flashcards
food in social life
- cooking, eating, food tavoos, socializing
- natural way to live
food taboos exist; vegans, orthodox hindus, musclisms, jew
functionalism
how particular beliefs adn instititons interrelate with each other and contribute to the perpetuation of a sociocultural ssystem
durkheimiean sociological theory
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
functional institions
enable general comparisons between society
critisims of cuntionalism
1960s onwards:
- social change; society is not in equillibrium
- social structures arent all accepted by individuals
- indivisition; actor ceterend acounts? agency.
agency
people know when they act and reflect on their actions
brian morris 1994
‘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
marcel mauss 1985
‘notions of self and person’
concept of a person defined by social history and varies according to law, religion, custom and social structures
case: the tallensi
- 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
case: homo hierachius
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.
caste system
social stratification wher epeople life in hierachies with different structures determined by ritualistic legetimization
‘the individual’
indivudal actors in isolation.
actors= interaction; interactions allow for understanding of agency; RELATIONSHIPS shape individual actions
actors
family government political party environment landscapes etc
status
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
role
dynamic aspect of a status; a persons actual behaviour when occupting a certain status
relationships determined by
status and role of a person in society
the constitituion of society 1979
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
pierre bourdieu
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
taste and distinction 1984
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
cultural capitol
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
habituts
culturally condidionted agency; physical embodiment of cultural capitlo
= enduing and learning actions by experience
-internalize programmes of action
janet carsten and individual rights
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
diane blood case
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
effects of diane blood case
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)
carstens analysis of diane blood case
- 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
carstens critique of the person
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)
agnatic/patrinilieal descenet
descencion from common male relative
patriolocal and virilocal
living with husbands family post marriage
natal
persons birth
consangunity
same ancestors as a another person
individual relationship to society approaches (study)
- structural-functionalist sfocus on social insittions and structure
- actor-center approach
individual vs dividual?
social organiziation of particular communities vary
revecca empson 2007
‘harnessing fortune’; looking how social operations operate en mongolia
mongolia
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
mckim marriot
‘the dividual’
indian caste system
indian caste system and marriot
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
marilyn strathern
‘the gender of gift’
looks at melanesian selfhood
melanesian self hood
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
anne becker
1994; ethnography on fiji, food, body
fijian sense of personhood
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
what did marcel mauss argue about personhood
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
socio-centric personhood
Socio-centric personhood – a role usually given at birth, cannot be separated from society (Meyer Fortes, Louis Dumont)
relational personhood
Relational personhood – sense of self develops over time in relation to other people (McKim Marriot, Marilyn Strathern)
personhood and philosophy
Personhood is not a given thing – philosophically tricky (Descartes-mind, Tyler-soul).
dividual
Dividuals - not bounded autonomous individuals, the individual is not the smallest unit – people are made up of social relationships
the west and personhood
The ‘west’ also has more ambiguous notions of personhood (Janet Carsten in After Kinship - organ donation (Lesley Sharp)
