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Cultural Dimension of Anatomy and Physiology
Body and Medicine in social and cultural context
2008 @ LIHernandez 2
Background
The human body is more than just a physical organism fluctuating between health and illness.
The human body is also the focus of a set of beliefs about the social and psychological significance, its structure and function.
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Background
The term body image has been used to describe all the ways that an individual conceptualizes and experiences his or her body. “his or her collective attitudes, feelings and
fantasies about his or her body”
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Background
The culture in which we grow up teaches how to perceive and interpret the many changes that can occur over time in our own bodies and in the bodies of other people. Old body vs. young body Healthy body vs. sick body Abled body vs. disabled body
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Main concepts of body image
Beliefs about the optimal shape and size of the body, including the clothing and decoration of its surface
Beliefs about the boundaries of the body Beliefs about the body’s inner structure Beliefs about how the body functions
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Variations in human bodies
Shape and Surface of the Body
A Cultural Construct
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Shape and Surface of the Body: Cultural construct
In every society, the human body has a social as well as a physical reality. The shape and adornments of the body
are a way of communicating information about its owner’s position in society, including information about his/her social status, gender, occupation, and membership of certain groups.
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Included in this form of communication are bodily gestures and postures, which frequently differ between cultures and between groups, within a culture. Difference in body language of doctors,
priests, politicians etc.
Shape and Surface of the Body: Cultural construct
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Clothing is also of particular importance in signaling social rank and occupation
Artificial changes in the shape, size and surface of the body, can have a social function.
Shape and Surface of the Body: Cultural construct
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Inherent in most of these culturally defined notions of “beauty” – usually of women – and the optimal size and shape of the body. Chinese bind foot women African tattooed women Indian sun-baked dye / hena women Tahitian “obese” women
Shape and Surface of the Body: Cultural construct
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Body mutilation is a cultural phenomena accepted by certain societies. Female circumcision in sub-Saharan
Africa, the Arab world, Malaysia and Indonesia
Male circumcision in most Catholic and Jewish communities
Penile implants among Filipino seafarers “Ritual scars” among tribes in South
America and Sierra Leone
Shape and Surface of the Body: Cultural construct
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Various forms of self-mutilation or alteration are used in Western countries. Orthodontics Plastic surgery Implants (breast, hair, etc) Piercing (ear, nose, tongue, lip, nipples) Dieting (anorexia nervosa)
Shape and Surface of the Body: Cultural construct
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Individual and social bodies
INDIVIDUAL Individual body-self
(both physical and psychological) which is acquired at birth, and a social body that is needed in order to live within a particular group and society
SOCIAL Social body is an
essential part of the body image.
Social body is perceived to be physically functioning influenced by societal norms and expectations.
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Individual vs. Social bodies
Are you really alone or need to be with others?
Do you conform or force to conform?
Do you lead or you follow?
How do you self-identify? Masked or real identity?
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The body…
The body provides us a collection of “natural symbols” with which to understand society itself and how it is organized.
The body image derived from society is not really external to or separate from the individual body-self, nor from its physical reality
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The body…
Individual embody the culture that they live in – their sensations, perceptions, feelings and other bodily experiences are all culturally patterned.
The Boundaries of the Body
Symbols and Meanings
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Symbolic Skins
For societies, skins are symbols – Intimate distance (0-18 inches) that can
only be entered by those who have an intimate physical relationship with the individual
Personal distance (18 inches to 4 feet) – this involves less intimate contact and relationships, but is still within the zone of personal space
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Social distance (4 – 12 feet) – this is the distance at which impersonal business transactions and casual social interactions take place
Public distance (12 – 25 feet or more) – this is the distance at which no social or personal interaction is taking place
Symbolic Skins
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Cultural symbolic skins
Define people’s sense of self based on symbolic skins (Japan) – more social body than individual
body (Northern India) – “half-body” owned by the
spouse and his kinship Tattooes, piercing, body implants
