scholarly journals “Masking” Makeup: Cosmetics and Constructions of Race in Rio de Janeiro

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 681-707
Author(s):  
Samuel Elliott Novacich
Keyword(s):  
Rio De Janeiro ◽  
Physical Appearance ◽  
The Body ◽  
Racial Discourse ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Categorical Constructions ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The One ◽  
Racial Discourses

This article examines applications of bright, eye-catching makeup on the periphery of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Tracking the aesthetic decisions of makeup artists and their clients, I analyze how colorful manipulations of the bodily surface relate to local constructions of race. But the bodily surface does not simply reflect established and conventional understandings of race, nor are the aesthetics described herein merely symbolic of assumptions of difference. Instead, the aesthetic practices portrayed in this article may also be regarded as experimental, “nondiscursive” moments—operating on a complementary semiotic register—in the production of yet-to-be actualized ideas about race and being. This research shows how makeup practices often disrupt the aesthetic and conceptual links that tie insides to outsides, essences and souls to physical appearance, and in so doing chip away at the foundations on which race in Brazil has historically been built. Through sixteen months of ethnographic fieldwork (2019–2020) in Rio’s northern suburbs, I observed as disparate aesthetic practices—namely, beautification and transformation—merged with eclectic understandings of the body and notions of being. Through these alternating lenses, makeup enthusiasts often interpreted material signs of the body as pointing to categorical constructions of race, on the one hand, and to beauty, sex, and desire, on the other.These semiotic oscillations and their interpretations often stood in conflict with established racial discourses, and yet rather than being exceptional, I argue that such exploratory, sensuous aesthetics are in fact mundane. Taking as a starting point the understanding that racial discourse in Brazil, as elsewhere, is internally ambiguous and rife with epistemic conflict, this article describes nondiscursive aesthetic practices as strands of material disorder—latent with possibility but often incongruous with what we think we know about race—working to forge novel understandings of race, beauty, and the body.

Naturalistic and Phenomenological Theories of Health: Distinctions and Connections

2013 ◽  
Vol 72 ◽  
pp. 221-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fredrik Svenaeus
Keyword(s):  
Biological Function ◽  
Central Element ◽  
The Body ◽  
Basic Difference ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The World ◽  
Health And Illness ◽  
The One ◽  
Taking Action ◽  
Health Theory

AbstractIn this paper I present and compare the ideas behind naturalistic theories of health on the one hand and phenomenological theories of health on the other. The basic difference between the two sets of theories is no doubt that whereas naturalistic theories claim to rest on value neutral concepts, such as normal biological function, the phenomenological suggestions for theories of health take their starting point in what is often named intentionality: meaningful stances taken by the embodied person in experiencing and understanding her situation and taking action in the world.Although naturalism and phenomenology are fundamentally different in their approach to health, they are not necessarily opposed when it comes to understanding the predicament of ill persons. The starting point of medical investigations is what the patient feels and says about her illness and the phenomenological investigation should include the way diagnoses of different diseases are interpreted by the person experiencing the diseases as an embodied being. Furthermore, the two theories display similarities in their emphasis of embodiment as the central element of health theory and in their stress on the alien nature of the body displayed in illness. Theories of biology and phenomenology are, indeed, compatible and in many cases also mutually supportive in the realm of health and illness.

Monuments of the Heart : Living Tombs and Organic Memories in Contemporary Culture

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Damiani
Keyword(s):  
Organ Transplantation ◽  
Basic Assumption ◽  
Deceased Donor ◽  
The Body ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Organic Memories ◽  
Symbolic Practices

According to the basic assumption that monuments are the aesthetic mediators of memory—primarily the memory of the dead—the essay aims to discuss the imaginary of the body as a sepulchral monument. Taking as a starting point the legend of Artemisia of Caria, who celebrated the memory of her dead husband/brother Mausolus both by having the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus erected and by drinking Mausolus’ ashes so as to turn herself into his living sarcophagus, the analytic focus is on the replication of similar symbolic practices in contemporary culture, namely in the field of organ transplantation. The transplanted patient receives and preserves within his/her body the organ of the deceased donor, thus becoming, even if unintentionally, the donor’s memorial monument.

Ästhetik des Südens. Ästhetik des Nordens. Anmerkungen zur Klimatheorie der Kunst

2013 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-148
Author(s):  
Konrad Lotter
Keyword(s):  
Life Style ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Natural Phenomena ◽  
The South ◽  
The North ◽  
Reflex Action ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One

Die eigentümliche Verbindung geographischer Begriffe wie »Süden« und »Norden« mit dem philosophischen Begriff der Ästhetik verweist auf die sog. Klimatheorie, die die Autonomie der Kunst bestreitet und ihre Eigenart und Entwicklung durch das Wetter und andere Naturbedingungen erklärt. Zum einen werden die verschiedenen Ansätze dieser Theorie z.Zt. der europäischen Aufklärung dargestellt, die das Klima durch den Körper, die Lebensweise oder die Arbeit des Menschen vermittelt, auf seine geistige Produktion bezieht. Das Hauptanliegen des Aufsatzes ist es, die Entwicklungen der Klimatheorie und ihre Aufhebung in die physiologische Ästhetik Nietzsches, die Stilpsychologie Worringers oder die Ästhetik von Marx, die den ideologischen Überbau als Refl ex der sozialökonomischen Basis begreift, aufzuzeigen. Zum anderen wird die Verdrängung der (klassizistischen) Ästhetik des Südens durch die (romantische) Ästhetik des Nordens analysiert, die sich zunehmend von ihrem Ausgangspunkt entfernt und den Begriff des Klimas durch den der Nation und der Rasse ersetzt.<br><br>The peculiar association of geographical terms like »south« and »north« with the philosophical term of aesthetics refers to the so called climatology, which denies the autonomy of art and explains its characteristics and its development by weather and other natural phenomena. On the one hand, various concepts of the European enlightenment are described, relating climate, mediated through the body, the life style or the work of men, to spiritual production. The main objective of the article is to demonstrate the development of climatology, its integration (Aufhebung) into Nietzsche’s physiological aestetics, into Worringer’s Stilpsychologie (psychology of style) as well as into the aestetics of Marx, who interprets the ideological superstructure as a reflex action of the social and economical basis. On the other hand, the repression of the (classical) aesthetics of the »south« by the (romantic) aestetics of the »north« is analysed. Thus removing itself more and more from its starting point, the »northern aesthetics« substitutes the notion of climate with that of nation and race.

Eternal Life and the Body According to Spinoza

2020 ◽  
pp. 68-80
Author(s):  
Alexandre Matheron
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Eternal Life ◽  
The Third ◽  
Adequate Knowledge ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Adequate Idea ◽  
The One ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Initial Starting

In this chapter, Matheron presents some brief thoughts on Proposition 39 of Part V of the Ethics, which states that a body capable of many things has a mind whose greater part is eternal. The key to unlocking this seemingly unusual claim is to understand what happens in the body when the mind understands. This leads Matheron to reconstruct the demonstrations that accompany the preceding propositions in Part V as well as to a discussion of adequate and inadequate ideas in Spinoza. Though we might not be immediately aware of it, to have an adequate idea of something external us is to have the adequate idea of a certain order that is established between affections in our body whose structure matches the one that inheres in the thing in question. This leads Matheron to a discussion of the ‘third kind of knowledge’ and its relation to the Spinozist concept of eternity, all of which clarify the initial starting point: the acquisition of new and more adequate knowledge always entails a clearer understanding of our body’s capacities that are already included in the eternal idea that we are.

Transtorno dismórfico corporal - a importância do diagnóstico prévio à consulta inicial em procedimentos estéticos

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 58-66
Author(s):  
João Heli de Campos
Keyword(s):  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Body Dysmorphic Disorder ◽  
Physical Appearance ◽  
Third Parties ◽  
The Body ◽  
Absolute Contraindication ◽  
Facial Changes ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Aesthetic Procedures

Aesthetic procedures do not have an absolute contraindication in patients with psychiatric disorders, however, anamnesis must take into account the body dysmorphic disorder that is the most common among individuals who seek body and facial changes through aesthetic procedures. Individuals with body dysmorphic disorder are distressed by perceived flaws in their physical appearance, commonly in their face. Although these “defects” are generally not noticeable to others, individuals with BDD misinterpret a certain part of their body as unattractive and repulsive. They spend several hours a day worrying about appearance, engaging in repetitive, time-consuming behaviors, like comparing, checking the mirror. They camouflage with the hair, handkerchiefs or the clothes the part and the body that the disturbed person sees with a problem. They tidy up their appearance excessively and seek guarantees from third parties that the problem exists. The purpose of this article is to alert the aesthetic professional about the obstacles that they may face when they are careless about the body dysmorphic disorder.

Toward an Aesthetical Approach to Screendance

2016 ◽  
pp. 498-514
Author(s):  
Susana Temperley
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
The Body ◽  
Aesthetic Appreciation ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Aesthetic Object ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Aesthetic

Technological objects which materialize the permanent emergence of the new and define one of the manifestations of present-day screendance need to be revalued in terms of aesthetic approach. Considering as a starting point Immanuel Kant’s opposition to any standards of taste—that is to say to any criteria of beauty considered as an objective foundation for the aesthetic appreciation—the chapter examines the notion of aesthetic behavior, which involves rediscovering the question of the pleasure connected with the reception of the work of art, as well as the notion of the aesthetic object as a substitute for a work of art, thus judging art in terms of strength and not institutional acceptability. Examining aspects of the piece such as the body, the movement of the camera, and the place of the narrative and fiction, the chapter then inquires into the resulting status of the aesthetic experience.

Revaluations through Dance: Friedrich Nietzsche's Thought in Isadora Duncan's Speech The Dance of the Future

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-219
Author(s):  
Meindert E. Peters
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The Body ◽  
Eternal Recurrence ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Mind

Friedrich Nietzsche's influence on Isadora Duncan's work, in particular his idea of the Dionysian, has been widely discussed, especially in regard to her later work. What has been left underdeveloped in critical examinations of her work, however, is his influence on her earlier choreographic work, which she defended in a famous speech held in 1903 called The Dance of the Future. While commentators often describe this speech as ‘Nietzschean’, Duncan's autobiography suggests that she only studied Nietzsche's work after this speech. I take this incongruity as a starting point to explore the connections between her speech and Nietzsche's work, in particular his Thus Spoke Zarathustra. I argue that in subject and language Duncan's speech resembles Nietzsche's in important ways. This article will draw attention to the ways in which Duncan takes her cues from Nietzsche in bringing together seemingly conflicting ideas of religion and an overturning of morality; Nietzsche's notion of eternal recurrence and the teleology present in his idea of the Übermensch; and a renegotiation of the body's relation to the mind. In doing so, this article contributes not only to scholarship on Duncan's early work but also to discussions of Nietzsche's reception in the early twentieth century. Moreover, the importance Duncan ascribes to the body in dance and expression also asks for a new understanding of Nietzsche's own way of expressing his philosophy.

‘If you shoulder a rifle […] let it be for Ireland’: James Connolly's War on War

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 364-381
Author(s):  
Margot Gayle Backus ◽  
Spurgeon Thompson
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
The Body ◽  
Party Leader ◽  
Irish Nationalism ◽  
British Imperialism ◽  
Communications Networks ◽  
Easter Rising ◽  
Trade Unionist ◽  
The One ◽  
National Governments

As virtually all Europe's major socialist parties re-aligned with their own national governments with the outbreak of World War I, Irish socialist and trade unionist James Connolly found himself internationally isolated by his vociferous opposition to the war. Within Ireland, however, Connolly's energetic and relentless calls to interrupt the imperial transportation and communications networks on which the ‘carnival of murder’ in Europe relied had the converse effect, drawing him into alignment with certain strains of Irish nationalism. Connolly and other socialist republican stalwarts like Helena Molony and Michael Mallin made common cause with advanced Irish nationalism, the one other constituency unamenable to fighting for England under any circumstances. This centripetal gathering together of two minority constituencies – both intrinsically opposed, if not to the war itself, certainly to Irish Party leader John Redmond's offering up of the Irish Volunteers as British cannon fodder – accounts for the “remarkably diverse” social and ideological character of the small executive body responsible for the planning of the Easter Rising: the Irish Republican Brotherhood's military council. In effect, the ideological composition of the body that planned the Easter Rising was shaped by the war's systematic diversion of all individuals and ideologies that could be co-opted by British imperialism through any possible argument or material inducement. Although the majority of those who participated in the Rising did not share Connolly's anti-war, pro-socialist agenda, the Easter 1916 Uprising can nonetheless be understood as, among other things, a near letter-perfect instantiation of Connolly's most steadfast principle: that it was the responsibility of every European socialist to throw onto the gears of the imperialist war machine every wrench on which they could lay their hands.

The Woman Who Turned Into a Jaguar, and Other Narratives of Native Women in Archives of Colonial Mexico

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Sousa
Keyword(s):  
Gender Relations ◽  
Civil Disobedience ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
The Body ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Criminal Records ◽  
Native Women ◽  
Women's Lives ◽  
Important Position ◽  
The One

The Woman Who Turned Into a Jaguar examines gender relations in indigenous societies of central Mexico and Oaxaca from the 1520s to the 1750s, focusing mainly on the Nahua, Ñudzahui (Mixtec), Bènizàa (Zapotec), and Ayuk (Mixe) people. This study draws on an unusually rich and diverse corpus of original sources, including Ñudzahui- (Mixtec-), Tíchazàa- (Zapotec-), and mainly Nahuatl-language and Spanish civil and criminal records, published texts, and pictorial manuscripts. The sources come from more than 100 indigenous communities of highland Mexico. The book considers women’s lives in the broadest context possible by addressing a number of interrelated topics, including: the construction of gender; concepts of the body; women’s labor; marriage rituals and marital relations; sexual attitudes; family structure; the relationship between household and community; and women’s participation in riots and other acts of civil disobedience. The study highlights subtle transformations and overwhelming continuities in indigenous social attitudes and relationships. The book argues that profound changes following the Spanish conquest, such as catastrophic depopulation, economic pressures, and the imposition of Christian marriage, slowly eroded indigenous women’s status. Nevertheless, gender relations remained inherently complementary. The study shows how native women and men under colonial rule, on the one hand, pragmatically accepted, adopted, and adapted certain Spanish institutions, concepts, and practices, and, on the other, forcefully rejected other aspects of colonial impositions. Women asserted their influence and, in doing so, they managed to retain an important position within their households and communities across the first two centuries of colonial rule.

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