Cultural bodies : ethnography and theory / edited by Helen Thomas and Jamilah Ahmed.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Thomas, Helen, 1947-

Ahmed, Jamilah.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Human body--Social aspects.

Human body.

Ethnology.

Physical Description:

x, 314 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Malden, MA : Blackwell Pub., 2004.

Summary:

Cultural Bodies: Ethnography and Theory is a unique collection that integrates two increasingly key areas of social and cultural research: the body and ethnography. "The body" continues to be a central theme of debate and research across the humanities and social sciences and in subjects such as gender, race, identity, and science and technology. However, existing literature on the body has taken a largely theoretical direction. Cultural Bodies breaks new ground by refusing to neglect the experiential and the empirical. Bringing together an international and multidisciplinary team of scholars, Cultural Bodies draws on ethnography as a useful means of exploring our everyday social and cultural environments and, in doing so, demonstrates the constant need for researchers and their research to be made accountable to readers. In this way, ethnography reveals as much about the frameworks of social research as it does about the societies that they move in and out of. By focusing on the body and ethnography, Cultural Bodies constitutes an important step in developing these two key areas of study and the relationship between them.

Contents:

Part I Ethnography 25

1 Inscriptions of Love / Les Back, Photography by Paul Halliday 27

2 From Catwalk to Catalog: Male Fashion Models; Masculinity, and Identity / Joanne Entwistle 55

3 Reading Racialized Bodies: Learning to See Difference / Suki Ali 76

4 Narratives of Embodiment: Body, Aging, and Career in Royal Ballet Dancers / Steven P. Wainwright, Bryan S. Turner 98

Part II Theory 121

5 Being a Body in a Cultural Way: Understanding the Cultural in the Embodiment of Dance / Sally Ann Allen Ness 123

6 Bare Life / Nigel Thrift 145

7 Lolo's Breasts, Cyborgism, and a Wooden Christ / Simon Shepherd 170

8 Talking Back to Neuro-reductionism / Emily Martin 190

Part III Theory and Ethnography 213

9 Eating for a Living: A Rhizo-ethology of Bodies / Elspeth Probyn 215

10 Health and the Holy in the Afro-Brazilian Candomble / Thomas J. Csordas 241

11 Here Comes the Sun: Shedding Light on the Cultural Body / Simon Carter, Mike Michael 260

12 Reaching the Body: Future Directions / Jamilah Ahmed 283.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

0631225846

0631225854

OCLC:

52559083