Syllabus
code for enrolling via MS Teams: k8s9p4y moodle:https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=11907 1. 24.2. Introduction of the Course and the Discipline of Anthropology/Sociology of the body
Bodies and social (dis)order 2. 3.3. Techniques of the body (Marcel Mauss) 3. 10.3. The two bodies (Mary Douglas) 4. 17.3. Embodied information in face-to-face interaction (Erwing Goffmann) 5. 24.3. Habitus, the body as both, the outcome and structuring principle (Pierre Bourdieu) 6. 31.3. Docile bodies (Michel Foucault) 7. 7. 4. Embodiment (Robert Murphy) 8. 14.4. Body and subjectivity (?)
Exercising power, shaping bodies 9. 21.4. Body as a discourse negotiation (Judith Butler+ Emily Martin) 10. 28.4. Body as a locus of cultural resistance (Aihwa Ong) 11. 5.5. Body – a central node in a symbolic and social structure (Nancy Scheper Hughes) 12. 19.5. Bodies incommensurable and the menopause (Margaret Lock)
Compulsory literature:
Mauss, Marcel (2007) [1935]. Techniques of the body. In Farquhar, J. and Lock, M. Beyond the Body Proper, pp. 50-68.
Douglas, M. (2004) [1970]. The two bodies. In Douglas, M., Natural symbols, pp. 72-91. Taylor & Francis e-Library.
Goffman, E. (1963). Introductory definitions, pp. 13-30. In Goffman, E., Behaviour in public places. New York, The Free Press.
Wacquant, L. J. D. (1995). Pugs at work: Bodily Capital and Bodily Labour among Professional Boxers. Body & Society, 1(1), 65–93.
Foucault, M. (1991). Discipline and punish: the birth of the prison. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, Penguin Books. (Chapter: Docile bodies, pp. 135-169)
Martin, E. (1991). The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles, Signs 16 (3), pp 485-501.
Ong, A. (1988). The Production of Possession: Spirits and the Multinational Corporation in Malaysia. American Ethnologist 15/1: 28-42
Scheper-Hughes, N. ([1989] 2006). Mother’s Love: Death without Weeping. In: Spradley, James P. & McCurdy, David W. (Eds.): Conformity & conflict: Readings in cultural anthropology. 14th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson, 156-162.
Lock, M., Kaufert, P. (2001). Menopause, local biologies, and cultures of aging. American Journal of Human Biology, 13(4), 494.
Annotation
This course aims to introduce different approaches to the body, health, and illness from the perspective of sociocultural anthropology. How can we study body and health-related issues? And what kind of understanding can we get based on these different approaches? The course is open to full-time and Erasmus students. Moreover, it is designed to contribute to the full-time students´ preparations for the compulsory Comprehensive exam in Social Sciences (CESS).
Based on the part of the readings for the third part of CESS, the development of anthropological thinking about the body, health and illness will be discussed. Through the in-class exercises, students will practice the skills of critical reading, writing, and text comparison. These are essential for the successful completion of the third part of CESS exam as well as for the completion of the dissertation. The course will take place online via MS Teams (code for the enrollment: ). The sessions will take up to 70minutes and will have a seminar form, where selected reading will be reviewed and the key concepts discussed and applied on the body or health-related topics. Therefore preparation (readings, synopses) creates an inherent part of the course.