1. Introduction: Anthropology of Body and Mind

Mask of a Japanese Shinto supernatural creature known as ‘Tengu’

Welcome to Culture, Body, & Mind at La Trobe University.

This is an upper-level, undergrad anthropology subject in the Anthropology of Body & Mind. The American Anthropological Association--the pre-eminent organization in this discipline--recognizes four branches of anthropology:

1. sociocultural anthropology,
2. biological/physical anthropology, 
3. archaeology, and
4.  linguistic anthropology.

The Anthropology Department at La Trobe, me included, specializes in sociocultural anthropology. So this is a sociocultural anthropology course.

Our starting point is that we inhabit our word, think and move, mostly without conscious reflection. If we do bother to reflect, thinking and moving often seems natural, normal, and unimportant. Yet many conceptions and practices associated with body and mind are far from 'natural' or 'normal'. Rather, they are culturally and socially significant. Furthermore, through studying conceptions and practices of body and mind, we develop a deeper understanding of what it is to be human.

Course Overview

In this subject, we will read how various authors use different theories and concepts to describe phenomena associated with body and mind. The anthropologist Hallowell uses the concepts of ontology and perspectivism to describe how the Ojibwa people of North America view bears as non-human persons. Anthropologist Downey uses the concept of phenomenology to describe how capoeira performers experience music and movement. Sociologists Wainright and Turner use the concept of social and cultural capital (from Field Theory) to describe how ballet dancers cope with aging. Philosopher Foucault uses the concept of governmentality to describe our modern consciousness. Philosopher Agamben uses the idea of killable bodies to describe a variety of phenomena, including the Holocaust. Anthropologist Serena Nanda applies the notion of binary and difference to explain gender diversity in Brazil. Anthropologist Christine Helliwell also uses the notion of difference to describe ideas of gender and agriculture among the Gerai. There are many other cases we discuss along the way. The subject provides alternative ways to think about the body and mind, which contrast the culturally specific ideas I (and perhaps you) possessed before studying the material we cover.

Capoeira

Concepts & theories in the anthropology of Body & Mind

The readings we cover in this subject constitute only a small segment of the larger study of body and mind within anthropology. Prior to the 1980s, the body had been mentioned in many different anthropological accounts. Often the anthropologist would focus on ritual and sometimes would interpret meaning. However, it seems that it was only after the 1980s that the body and mind attracted the systematic attention of a large number of anthropologists. A good introduction to the systematic study of body and mind comes from famous anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes and her co-author Lock in "The Mindful Body". I have summarised this article here. This was written in the 1980s, but had remarkable foresight. If I was to update it, I'd suggest that these have been the major concepts and theories in the anthropological study of body and mind:

1. Dualism
2. Ontology (& Perspectivism)
3. Embodiment
4. Phenomenology
5. Habitus and Field Theory
6. Sexual desire, behavior, and identity.
7. Surveillance and Governmentality.
8. Killable Bodies (Homo sacer)
9. The dividual

So I'll try to ensure you learn about these concepts through this subject.

Main object of this subject

These topics, concepts, and theories are only of secondary interest. Rather, this subject has one main objective; students should be able to think, talk, and write about issues of body and mind from an anthropological perspective. (Other anthropologists use the term "anthropological imagination" and sometimes "anthropological lens" to describe this). In this, the first section of the subject, we focus on the anthropological perspective. Then you'll be able to use this anthropological perspective when approaching the other issues we describe in the course.

Ballet

Anthropological perspective

The objective in this first section of the course is to be able to recognize and apply the anthropological perspective. The anthropological perspective describes the way socio-cultural anthropologists approach their study. It is sometimes called the 'anthropological lens', 'anthropological approach', or the 'anthropological imagination'. But, for practical purposes, these mean the same thing. Working with students over the years, I have come up with a fairly standard list of concepts that help explain the anthropological perspective:

*Relativism: This means not judging other cultures by you own standards. Strictly speaking we call it 'methodological relativism'. This means we don't argue that one culture's way of looking at the world is better than another. So the purpose of anthropology is not to tell you that other cultures have a superior understanding of issues of body and mind. Rather what anthropologists argue about is which concepts or perspectives provide better insights into different cultures. This means you should develop an awareness of the insights and limitations different theories and concepts provide into different cultures.

*Understanding (verstehen): Studying how other people understand their own actions 

*Reflexivity: Using your your understanding of other cultures looking back at yourself (in light of other cultures) 

* Ethnocentrism: Is something we try to avoid. Ethnocentrism implies thinking your culture is the best; judging other cultures by your own culture’s values. Ethnocentrism features in many cultures, including Western cultures. In extreme cases of ethnocentrism, members of socities believe that they are the only true humans. At the opposite extreme is a tendency (not very widespread) to believe one's own culture/society is inferior. 

* Holism: looking at issues of body and mind, for example, in terms of a culture's kinship, economics, law, politics etc. We understand body and mind in terms of the hole culture. 

* Qualitative : Anthropology is largely qualitative, statistics are rarely used. not stats thanks 

* Fieldwork. We call anthropology the fieldwork disciplines. By this we mean anthropologists conduct ethnography. The most common form of ethnography is participant-observation. Participant-observation means you hang out deeply, immerse in the culture, watch, participate sensitively, over the course of 1-2 years, learn the language with the people you are studying. 

*Comparison: The idea with comparison is that anthropologists have to use intellectual concepts (e.g. kinship) to look at different cultures and get a sense of human difference and similarity. In this course, what we are comparing is different beliefs and practices concerning body and mind. 

*Essentialism: Essentialism occurs when we say things like 'boys will be boys', "Indigenous people are essentially good natured", etc. This is a form of stereotyping, so anthropologists try to avoid it.

Maybe these are too many principles. So I sometimes just cut it down to the good old-fashioned 'holy trinity' -- comparison, holism, and relativism. That's what I do in this video anyway:

The main thing is that we don't treat the anthropological perspective, concepts, and theories as right or wrong. Anthropology could be described as a 'divergent discipline', which means anthropologists themselves can't all agree on the basic fundamentals of what anthropology is.I'm pretty sure each of the principles I have listed above has been subjected to scrutiny and even rejected by different anthropologists.  But in a spirit of curious skepticism we can apply these principles if only see how useful they are in understanding human life.

Triangle of knowledge

One way to envision how we treat the theories as part of a triangle. We apply (1) the anthropological perspective as well as concepts and theories to (2) a variety of cultural and social phenomena associated with the body and mind so that we can (3) better understand what it is to be human. You will note that we use the work of philosophers and sociologists as well as anthropologists in the subject. Regardless of the writer's disciplinary background, you'll need to be able to analyze their writing from the anthropological perspective. 

Mixed Martial Arts fighters

Applying the anthropological perspective

Now I've presented the basics of the anthropological study of body and mind, let's return to the main point of this first section of the subject. Your aim in this section is to become familiar with the anthropological approach.

Required reading: Metcalf

To test yourself, read "Death be not Strange". It's a great read and only a few pages long. Metcalf writes that the Berawan of north-central Borneo live in longhouses. Before the burial ritual is complete, both the spirit and the body are feared as the soul “might cause more death”. But why are Berawan so concerned with the corpse?

What happens in, for example, a typical Italian-American Catholic funeral? How are Berawan rituals different from this? Why is the practice of embalming (preserving corpses for display in open coffins) so repulsive to the Berawan? What are funerals and what do they do?

Now let's look at how Metcalf's article compares to different elements of the the anthroplogical.t.

*Relativism: Metcalf's approach is relativistic. This means Metcalf does not write that the Berawan are disgusting, sick, backward etc.

*Understanding (verstehen): Metcalf attemtps to understand it from their perspective. Metcalf attempts to describe how the Berawan themselves understand the way they treat a corpse.

*Reflexivity: Metcalf reflects back on American funerary practises.  

* Holism: Metcalf tries to understand Berawan mortuary practices in relation to Berawan ideas of soul, spirit, body and death.. 

* Qualitative: The aritcle is not quantitative. Metcalf doesn't write, "I interviewed 50 Berawan people aged 18-65 and 42% said that they would find embalming disgusting".

* Fieldwork: Metcalf conducted fieldwork. Hlived with the Berawan, learned their language, participated in every day life.

*Comparison: Metcalf uses the concept of mortuary ritual to show difference and similiarities between different cultures.

So by applying relativism, understanding, reflexivity, holism, a qualitative approach, comparison and by using comparison, Metcalf's article is anthropological.

Metcalf's article is also anthropological because it avoids two things: 

* Ethnocentrism: Metcalf tries to avoid judging the Berawan from a Western perspective. 

*Essentialism: Metcalf doesn't stereotype the Berawan, he doesn't say "Essentially the Berawan are backward and traditional" or something like that.

Further Study

So you get a sense of the discipline, please note that, like myself, Metcalf is not one of the 'big names' in anthropology. Metcalf, myself, and thousands of other socio-cultural anthropologists teach and do a little research. Generally, we really enjoy our work and that is its own reward.

For further study, if you want to read one of the 'big names', and if the treatment of corpses interests you might want to read Rosaldo's famous work, Grief and a Headhunter's Rage. Metcalf subsequently critiqued Rosaldo; in this presentation, my colleague (and wife!) Monika Winarnita explains:

Revision

In this, Section 1 of "Anthropology of Body & Mind", we have covered anthropological perspective. By the end of the course, you should be able to think and write about issues of body and mind from an anthropological perspective. I hope you continue on. In Section 2, we use the anthropological perspective to challenge our notions of self as an individual. And then in Section 3, we use this perspective to approach the fundamental modern Western understanding self as body and/or mind.