THE MINDFUL BODY (Scheper-Hughes and Lock) MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY THE MINDFUL BODY (Scheper-Hughes and Lock)

“The body is the first and most natural tool of man” Marcel Mauss “The body is the first and most natural tool of man” LI Hernandez

Prolegomenon to the Body Three Bodies INDIVIDUAL BODY: lived experience of body-self … the way in which the body is received and experienced in health and sickness SOCIAL BODY: the body as a natural symbol with which to think about nature, society and culture … the body as a social meaning BODY POLITIC: the body as a regulated, surveyed and controlled body in reproductive and sexuality, in work and in leisure, in sickness and in health LI Hernandez

The Individual Body “I think, therefore I am” (RDescartes) Anthropological (Aristotle) vs. Medical (Hippocrates) construction of disease/illness through the body (individual) “Body and Mind” continuum (Descartes) – the palpable body and intangible mind in terms of sickness and wellness Cartesian legacy (fn Hippocrates) separated this “body and mind” model to develop clinical science (the body as an examined body) LI Hernandez

Medicalization of Illness Body (external) Mind (internal) II Age of Science Medicine Body as clinical investigation III Medicalization of Illness Illness vs. Disease …abnormalities in the structure and/or function of organs and organ systems (disease) from the patient’s subjective experience of malaise (illness)… Illness stage Disease-Illness stage Disease Stage Thus, the “illness “ dimension of human distress (i.e., social relations of sickness) is being medicalized and individualized. Medicalization entails a missed identification between the individual and the social bodies, and a tendency to transform the social being into the biological. LI Hernandez

The Social Body Body as a metaphor (e.g., how do we convey our body to others?) Body as a symbol (e.g., what do you represent your body?) Body as a meaning (e.g., why you present your body to others?) Body as history (e.g., what is the history of your body?) LI Hernandez

Body (self) Form Substance Meanings Matter LI Hernandez

Illness/Disease Mental disorder STI AIDS Cancer Cardio-Vascular RTIs Sex Worker Body Decoration Diet Economic Social Acceptance Illness/Disease Mental disorder STI AIDS Cancer Cardio-Vascular RTIs Etc… LI Hernandez

The Body Politic Body as a social control (i.e., reproductive health or family planning) Body as physical mapping (i.e., body decoration as a means to self-identify) Body as a social fit (i.e., societal scripts for the domestication of the individual body in conformity to the needs of the social and political order) LI Hernandez

What kind of body do you represent? In conclusion… What kind of body do you represent?