Abstract

AYORA DIAZ, Steffan Igor. The Body and the Naturalization of Difference in Contemporary Societies. Nueva antropol [online]. 2007, vol.20, n.67, pp.89-118. ISSN 0185-0636.

This paper argues that anthropologists need to adopt a critical standpoint regarding the human body, taking into account the discursive and practical mechanisms that lead to the naturalization of the body and, at the same time, of difference. The paper reviews the diverse anthropological approaches that have led anthropologists to examine the relationship between society, culture and the body, demonstrating how these approaches included already the basis for the denaturalization of the body. It then examines the ways in which anthropologists have maintained the Cartesian dichotomy subordinating the body to the mind. Individuality and the creation of modern subjectivities demand an instrumental relation to one's own body as while it is recognized as natural and already given, it is also recognized as malleable and subject to individual control over one's body. Obesity is a privileged example in this transition of centuries as its definition as a problem has made converge medical, psychological, sociological, moral, religious and nutritional discourses that demand that individuals harmonize often-contradictory views about the body. These discourses veil the role of corporations and shift the attention toward the individual's responsibility of self-body control. It argues that anthropology can contribute to destabilize these assumptions and lead to a better understanding of the complex issues inscribed in the human body.

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