The Mindful Body: a Prolegomenon to Future Work in Medical Anthropology
ARTICLES NANCYSCHEPER-HUGHES Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley MARGARETM. LOCK Department of Humanities and Social Studies in Medicine, McGill University The Mindful Body: A Prolegomenon to Future Work in Medical Anthropology Conceptions of the body are central not only to substantive work in med- ical anthropology, but also to the philosophical underpinnings of the en- tire discipline of anthropology, where Western assumptions about the mind and body, the individual and socieo, affect both theoretical view- points and research paradigms. These same conceptions also injluence ways in which health care is planned and delivered in Western societies. In this article we advocate the deconstruction of received concepts about the body and begin this process by examining three perspectives from which the body may be viewed: (1) as a phenomenally experienced indi- vidual body-self; (2) as a social body, a natural symbol for thinking about relationships among nature, sociev, and culture; and (3)as a body politic, an artifact of social and political control. After discussing ways in which anthropologists, other social scientists, and people from various cultures have conceptualized the body, we propose the study of emotions as an area of inquiry that holds promise for providing a new approach to the subject. The body is the first and most natural tool of man-Marcel Maw(19791 19501) espite its title this article does not pretend to offer a comprehensive review of the anthropology of the body, which has its antecedents in physical, Dpsychological, and symbolic anthropology, as well as in ethnoscience, phenomenology, and semiotics.' Rather, it should be seen as an attempt to inte- grate aspects of anthropological discourse on the body into current work in med- ical anthropology.
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