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Material Religion the Journal of Objects, Art and Belief Material Religion The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief ISSN: 1743-2200 (Print) 1751-8342 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rfmr20 Thinking through the Body. Essays in Somaesthetics Anne Koch To cite this article: Anne Koch (2015) Thinking through the Body. Essays in Somaesthetics, Material Religion, 11:2, 270-272, DOI: 10.1080/17432200.2015.1059133 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17432200.2015.1059133 Published online: 01 Oct 2015. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 161 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rfmr20 Download by: [Florida Atlantic University] Date: 10 October 2016, At: 07:52 dress embodying a sense of “ordinariness’” Hogard pays attention to the media framing which also “transcends identity” (132). Rather of “modest fashion” which highlights the way than being pre-given, determining the “mod- in which the female body remains a central est” or “halal” nature of a particular dress is site of surveillance—as epitomized through therefore subjected to continuous discussion the Nigella Lawson burkini controversy in and interpretation (see for instance Moors 2011 (187). (29), Cameron (145)). This is also clearly Through the adoption of such a compar- illustrated through the contribution of Barbara ative approach, the volume nicely captures Goldman Carrel who offers a nice ethnogra- the complexity that surrounds modest fash- phy of how Boston-based Hasidic communi- ion and for the most part manages to avoid ties are involved in a continuous adjustment essentializing accounts that take religion or “Hasidification” of manufactured and and gender as incompatible. However, not designer clothes. This ranges from learning all contributions succeed this endeavour. In techniques to re-adjust the dress to fit one’s a remarkable intervention, Elisabeth Wilson standards (re-adjusting the neckline, shoul- addresses the by-now classical question of Book Reviews der size) to inscribing one’s preference for veiling and patriarchy, yet does so in a way designer clothes into a discourse of royalty that it reproduces many of the clichés that that confirm the Hasidim in their position of were criticized and deconstructed by the spiritual superiority (109). various contributions in the same volume. Understanding how the negotiation of Yet aside from these unfortunate excep- these boundaries takes place would, how- tions, Modest Fashion remains an interest- ever, be impossible without understanding ing contribution to the literature on fashion the central role of the Internet in this respect. and religion through the attention it accords A second aim of this volume is therefore to to the role of the Internet, the broad inter- underscore the central role of the Internet faith approach it adopts, and the analytical in the emergence of this “modest fashion reflection it offers on how through the cat- industry” and how Internet platforms provide egory of modesty traditional gender roles, for a unique vantage point to not only deter- dominant beauty standards and interfaith mine what counts as modesty but to equally relationships are continuously redefined. enable discussions in this respect. In Emma Tarlo’s contribution we are witness to how modest fashion not only enables interconfes- Volume 11 Volume sional encounters between Jewish, Christian, thinking through Issue 2 and Muslim women but also how the Internet (and the anonymity it offers) plays an impor- the body: essays in tant role in bridging these boundaries (78–9). somaesthetics, The importance of the Internet also lies at the Richard Shusterman, 2012 heart of Reina Lewis’s contribution. Yet in this Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 270 account the Internet not only acts as a pas- ISBN 978 1 107 69850 5 sive platform but is understood through its own logic of advertising, of hyperlinking, and Reviewed by Anne Koch of restructuring the religious communities Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (e.g. 54). She looks, for instance, at the cen- DOI: 10.1080/17432200.2015.1059133 tral role fashion bloggers play and how they not only act as main alternative to the offline Florida-based emeritus philosopher fashion magazine for modest fashion style, Richard Shusterman is well-known for his but also how these same fashion bloggers somaesthetics, which connects philosophy almost emerge as semi-formal new (female) with (a)esthetics in a pragmatist mode. authorities in the religious field (52); see Building on the early modern philosophy of also Moors’ contribution (28–9). Finally, Liz Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (1714–1762) Material Religion and his determination of aesthetics as a which realizes a transmodal perceptive theory of sensory knowledge, he diverges experience of odor, taste, beauty, and from the phenomenology of the body and diverse haptic sensations, the book is divided perception. This approach is represented, into three parts. These could be paraphrased for example, by Maurice Merleau-Ponty, as: somatic knowledge (I), positions in an whom he criticizes (e.g. on pp. 48–9) for intellectual history of aesthetics (II), and postulating a primordial founding of the world pragmatist cultural politics in the form of in a universal embodied consciousness. aesthetic body politics (III), although these Instead, Shusterman relies more on insights themes are also found throughout all three of contemporary cognitive sciences when sections. he discusses, for example, in Japanese Part I explores types of somatic No theater as training for learning to link knowledge, providing the basis for the visual with proprioceptive sensations in title “thinking through the body.” The certain body postures, or when he gestures “practical somaesthetics” (45) of the body toward mirror neurons (pp. 212–13). scan mentioned above derives from the Shusterman’s philosophy is also interested Feldenkrais Method and is also reminiscent in an embodied style of living. With this of autogenic training, mindfulness exercises, pragmatist orientation, pointing out where or yoga nidra (chapter 5). What is specific thought makes a difference for living and to the somaesthetic method is the experiencing, he takes on ancient Greek ensuing disclosure of strategies on how notions of philosophy as an art of living. attention works via a conceptualization of This means two different things for him: introspection which delivers a very valuable on the one hand, a heightened body and dense description indeed. awareness is an aim that he suggests be Part II starts off with an intellectual implemented, for example, by teaching autobiography of the binational Israeli- the “body scan” in a classroom exercise. American Shusterman. The path of his life Thus, it becomes clear that his endeavor connects the crossing of disciplinary lines in the field of somaesthetics must also be and going beyond the limits of philosophical located in the field of self-technologies. In analytical aesthetics and towards pragmatist this vein, he compares the ideas of American aesthetics of the body and self-cultivation. transcendentalists with zazen practice in Somaesthetics often also implies emotion their intensifying of body awareness (chapter theory, as delights, passions, and pleasures 13). On the other hand, he also argues that are an integral part of bodily expressions. somaesthetics should play a crucial role for In this section, his contention with Rorty an aesthetic politics of bodies and art in the is revealing: An encounter with Rorty was pragmatist project of cultural politics. On this Shusterman’s reason to relocate from Israel last point, he suggests an understanding to the USA, leaving analytical philosophy different from his mentor Richard Rorty’s behind and immersing himself instead vision of philosophy as cultural politics in pragmatism, but his mentor rejects (chapter 8 and Part III). somaethetics as a meaningful approach Conceived as a continuation of his from his standpoint of strong linguistic earlier publication Body Consciousness, constructivism. Against Rorty, Shusterman a Philosophy of Mindfulness and holds on to nonlinguistic, nondiscursive, and Somaesthetics (2008), this new collection of nonpropositional forms of understanding 271 14 mostly revised articles from 2005–2011 and holds that the realm of experience, even applies this specific perspective to a wide if radically contingent, is bound in its modal range of topics: muscle memory, the openness to contingent institutions and somaticism in Edward Burke’s concept of social norms. Rorty is said to confine himself the sublime, an aesthetics of the sexual, the to a textual contribution about what people concept of style, everyday life aesthetics, think of such things; Shusterman proposes cultural differences of body consciousness, a meliorist and interventionist position on architecture, photography, and even an cultural politics. Somaesthetics devises extension to “posthuman somaesthetics” alternative ways of bodily well-being, beauty, of robotics, genetic engineering, and and the perception of ethnicity that are “more prosthetics. Dedicated to the curator of liberating and rewarding” (189). the Chinese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale Part III on the practical dimension of 2011, Peng Feng, in honor of his art project, somaesthetics is thus a strong plea for self-cultivation, based on the belief that The Art and Material somaesthetic perception can be improved (e.g. 141, 165). The
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