Death and the Discourse of the Body

A meaningful discourse on death needs to take into account the various ways in which the body is “constructed” in different cultures. Biomedicine, which is rooted in western culture, places a great deal of importance on the body and this creates an anxiety over death. In contrast, the Indian science of medicine draws heavily from an ancient philosophical tradition in which metaphysical ideas about the soul have contributed to the relative insignificance of the body. Both disease and death have been understood in meta-body terms and there is a cultural embrace of death rather than its denial. The article concludes by suggesting the need to move away from sheer biological essentialism in understanding the human dimension of death in different cultures.

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Cuerpo indeterminado: La precariedad del cuerpo en el discurso feminista

Revista de la Academia ◽

10.25074/0196318.0.47 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 20 ◽

pp. 47

Author(s):

María Isabel Peña Aguado

Keyword(s):

Feminist Theory ◽

Queer Theory ◽

Female Body ◽

The Body ◽

Philosophical Tradition ◽

Font Size ◽

Feminist Discourse ◽

Feminist Movements ◽

Cuerpo Femenino

La teoría feminista heredó de una tradición filosófica hostil la identificación de cuerpo y mujer. Partiendo de esta identificación de mujer y cuerpo es comprensible que un cuestionamiento del concepto ‘mujer’ influya asimismo en el lugar que va a encontrar el cuerpo dentro del movimiento y teoría feministas. Ese lugar será diferente dependiendo de las diversas reivindicaciones que marcan las diferencias entre los distintos feminismos y teorías queer. La pregunta que se plantea es hasta qué punto la precariedad del cuerpo femenino dentro de la misma teoría feminista es consecuencia del cuestionamiento del concepto de mujer o si, por el contrario, no será más bien el rechazo a una realidad corporal concreta lo que ha permitido y ayudado a desarmar los conceptos de ‘mujer’ y ‘mujeres’ hasta el punto de considerarlos como innecesario para el mismo discurso y políticas feministas contemporáneos.Palabras claves: cuerpo, mujeres, feminismo, Teoría Queer Indeterminacy of the body: precariousness of body in the feminist discourseFeminist theory inherited the identification of woman and body from a hostile philosophical tradition. Given this identification, it is understandable that a questioning of the concept ‚woman‘ also influences the place that the body will find in the feminist movements and theories. The question that arises is how far the precariousness of the female body within feminist theory itself is the result of a questioning of the concept of ‘woman’ or whether, on the contrary, it is the rejection of a concrete corporal reality which has enabled and helped to disarm the concepts of ‚woman‘ and ‚women‘ to the point of considering them unnecessary for contemporary feminist discourse and politics. Keywords: body, women, feminism, Queer Theory

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The virtual and the real. Digital culture and the body in the study of handwriting

Open Information Science ◽

10.1515/opis-2021-0002 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 11-26

Author(s):

Ewan Clayton

Keyword(s):

Western Culture ◽

The Body ◽

Digital Culture ◽

Cultural Shift ◽

The Real ◽

Digital World

Abstract Since Traube (1861-1907) paleography has been concerned primarily with methods for transcribing, dating and placing texts. This paper responds to two changes in perspective that have occurred within western culture over the last century: the arrival of a digital world which saw the transformation of computers from calculating devices into new tools for writing and reading and a cultural shift away from a Cartesian perspective that distinguishes between body and mind and privileges self aware rationality over felt experience. For the purposes of this paper the link between these trends is that both throw new emphasis on writing as an activity rather than a product. This paper looks at how insights from the digital, and body-based disciplines of document creation might then interact with the paleographical and each other. The influences all run both ways, the paleographical can effect the digital as much an understanding of the digital can bring new ways of seeing to the paleographical.

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Ethnographic reflections on selfhood, embodiment and Alzheimer's disease

Ageing and Society ◽

10.1017/s0144686x04002375 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 24 (6) ◽

pp. 829-849 ◽

Cited By ~ 143

Author(s):

PIA C. KONTOS

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Care Facility ◽

Ethnographic Study ◽

The Body ◽

Philosophical Tradition ◽

Cultural Significance ◽

Term Care ◽

Long Term Care Facility ◽

The World

Explicit in the current construction of Alzheimer's disease is the assumption that memory impairment caused by cognitive deficiencies leads to a steady loss of selfhood. The insistence that selfhood is the exclusive privilege of the sphere of cognition has its origins in the modern western philosophical tradition that separates mind from body, and positions the former as superior to the latter. This dichotomy suggests a fundamental passivity of the body, since it is primarily cognition that is held to be essential to selfhood. In contrast to the assumed erasure of selfhood in Alzheimer's disease, and challenging the philosophical underpinnings of this assumption, this paper presents the findings of an ethnographic study of selfhood in Alzheimer's disease in a Canadian long-term care facility. It argues and demonstrates that selfhood persists even with severe dementia, because it is an embodied dimension of human existence. Using a framework of embodiment that integrates the perspectives of Merleau-Ponty and Bourdieu, it is argued that selfhood is characterised by an observable coherence and capacity for improvisation, and sustained at a pre-reflective level by the primordial and socio-cultural significance of the body. The participants in this study interacted meaningfully with the world through their embodied way of ‘being-in-the-world’.

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Understanding Cancer

Adult Nursing Practice ◽

10.1093/oso/9780199697410.003.0014 ◽

2012 ◽

Author(s):

Cathy Hughes

Keyword(s):

Cancer Research ◽

Bone Marrow Cells ◽

Age Groups ◽

Growth Control ◽

Disease Process ◽

The Body ◽

Cancer Site ◽

Abnormal Growth ◽

The Individual ◽

Different Cultures

The aim of this chapter is provide an overview of cancer, a biologically similar, but diverse, group of diseases. Understanding the disease process will help the practising nurse to plan nursing care and to seek appropriate specialist advice. Cancer can affect almost any part of the body and has significance for different age groups and within different cultures, so the effect on the individual, the prognosis, and the treatment will significantly differ depending upon cancer site and treatment setting. This chapter will outline symptoms in relation to the site of the body affected to illustrate the effect of cancer on an individual, and consideration will also be given to the wider impact of the disease. This chapter is underpinned by the principles of evidence-based patient-centred care and will focus on the concepts associated with promoting lifestyles that reduce the risk of developing cancer, screening to identify those at risk, detection of early disease, and the care and management of the individual with and beyond cancer. Cancer refers to a condition in which there is abnormal growth of cells. The characteristics of cancer cells are that they divide uncontrollably, do not require stimulation for growth as do normal cells, and are not restrained by the presence of neighbouring cells. Because cancer is concerned with a failure in the growth control mechanism of the cell at a gene or DNA level and because there are potentially as many different types of cancer as there are types of body cell, no two cancers are exactly alike (Cancer Research UK, 2009). The site at which a cancer first develops (primary cancer), such as lung or breast, is often used broadly to describe it; however, cancer is generally defined by the origin of the type of cell that has become cancerous. The most frequent sites and types of cancer are as follows….● Carcinomas—arise in epithelial cells in the skin, gastrointestinal tract, and other internal organs, and make up about 85% of all cancers (Cancer Research UK, 2010a) ● Haematological (blood and lymphatic system) cancers—arise from blood or bone marrow cells; include leukaemia, lymphoma, and myeloma, and make up about 7% of all cancers, but leukaemia is the commonest cancer in children (Cancer Research UK, 2010b)…

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The Mystery of Body: Nancy's Corpus and the Christian Body

Horizons ◽

10.1017/hor.2020.42 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 47 (1) ◽

pp. 24-45

Author(s):

Krešimir Šimić

Keyword(s):

Western Culture ◽

The Body ◽

Christian Theology ◽

Body Of Christ ◽

Theology Of The Body ◽

Christ Church ◽

Inoperative Community ◽

Biblical Texts

After the initial contextualization of the topic, by following Nancy's juxtaposition strategy, this article points to two senses of the body that, according to him, have defined the Western culture. The first one, logos (principle precedes the body and gives it meaning); the second, sarx (the meaning of the body comes from the body itself, so that the body comes out of itself, alienates itself, and deconstructs its own representative activities). Next, I give a more precise depiction of Nancy's deconstruction of the body through an analysis of Corpus because it is precisely with this work (in the chapter On the Soul, which is also the title of Aristotle's well-known treatise dealing first and foremost with the body, and in the chapter The Extension of the Soul) that Nancy most explicitly deconstructs hylomorphic somatology, which largely influenced the Christian theology of the body. Furthermore, I interpret Genesis 2:18–25 (in constant dialogue with Nancy) as a theological reaction on Nancy's deconstruction of the body. In other words, on the basis of biblical texts, the “mystery of the body” is depicted. Finally, the article ends with a comparison of Nancy's “inoperative community” (communauté désoeuvrée) and the Body of Christ (church).

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Racism, racial life events and mental ill health

Advances in Psychiatric Treatment ◽

10.1192/apt.7.5.343 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 7 (5) ◽

pp. 343-349 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Dinesh Bhugra ◽

Oyedeji Ayonrinde

Keyword(s):

Psychiatric Disorders ◽

Life Events ◽

Common Mental Disorders ◽

The Body ◽

Mental Illnesses ◽

Positive Life Events ◽

Minority Ethnic Groups ◽

Different Cultures ◽

The Impact

The association of life events with the onset of various psychiatric disorders is well-known. The body of evidence has highlighted the impact of negative or positive life events on the genesis of common mental disorders, especially depression. These findings have been replicated across different cultures, although the impact of different life events varies between cultures. In addition, the roles of chronic difficulties (defined in Life events and psychiatric disorders, below) and resulting ongoing chronic stress have been shown to contribute to vulnerability to certain mental illnesses. However, data on the impact of life events, especially those perceived as racial, on members of minority ethnic groups are rather sparse. The questions that need to be addressed concern the perception of life events as racial, the role of pervasive and perceived institutional and individual racism, and chronic difficulties.

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Nietzsche’s Therapy of Therapy

Nietzsche Studien ◽

10.1515/nietzstu-2017-0107 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 46 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Marta Faustino

Keyword(s):

Western Culture ◽

The Self ◽

The Other ◽

Philosophical Tradition ◽

Other Hand ◽

The One ◽

Basic Features

AbstractThis paper examines Nietzsche’s relation to the therapeutic philosophical tradition paradigmatically represented by the Hellenistic schools. On the one hand, given his project of rehabilitating Western culture and his understanding of the philosopher as a “physician of culture”, Nietzsche seems also to hold a therapeutic understanding of philosophy; on the other hand, he is extremely critical of any (philosophical, moral or religious) attempt to heal mankind. This paper does not aim to solve this tension but rather characterizes Nietzsche’s endeavor in this respect as a therapy of therapy. Through analysis of a) the basic features of the Hellenistic conception of philosophy, b) Nietzsche’s development of the analogy of the “philosophical physician”, c) his diagnosis of culture, and d) his criticism of previous therapists, I show that Nietzsche can be formally included in this tradition of thought, even if this inclusion has implications for the tradition itself. As I suggest, given the self-referentiality of Nietzsche’s therapy, his inclusion in this tradition might in fact simultaneously entail its own self-suppression.

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Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body.

Contemporary Sociology A Journal of Reviews ◽

10.2307/2075082 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 42

Author(s):

Mimi Nichter ◽

Susan Bordo

Keyword(s):

Western Culture ◽

The Body

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Effect of differently worded messages about alcohol on intent to breastfeed among university women in South Korea

World Nutrition ◽

10.26596/wn.201910227-39 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 27-39

Author(s):

Ted H Greiner ◽

Igor Z Zubrzycki ◽

Boseul Jegal ◽

Sang-Sun Lee

Keyword(s):

Alcohol Consumption ◽

Alcohol Use ◽

Heavy Drinking ◽

The Body ◽

Convenience Sample ◽

University Women ◽

Duration Of Breastfeeding ◽

Different Cultures ◽

The Impact ◽

Intention To Breastfeed

Background: There is concern that advice not to drink alcohol could discourage the initiation and particularly shorten the duration of breastfeeding. However, little research has explored the impact of variously worded messages about drinking while breastfeeding on women’s intentions to drink or to breastfeed. Methods: We haphazardly allocated a convenience sample of nulliparous (>95%) Korean female university students to be exposed to three differently worded messages on alcohol use during breastfeeding in the body of a questionnaire. Translated to English, they were as follows: Liberal: “Breastfeeding is compatible with moderate but not heavy drinking of alcohol.” Moderate: “You can use alcohol while breastfeeding, but only on rare occasions and only 1-2 drinks at a time. Too much alcohol can harm the breastfeeding process. After each drink, you should wait 2 hours before breastfeeding to keep the child from being affected.” Strict: “You should never use alcohol while you are breastfeeding.” Results: Most of the 280 valid responses expressed an intention to breastfeed. Over 90% of sampled women drank alcohol currently; 91% of them intended to reduce consumption during breastfeeding. How strictly messages were worded did not affect intention to drink during breastfeeding. Neither strict nor liberal messages reduced intention to drink alcohol while breastfeeding. The strict message clearly told the students what to do, whereas the moderate and liberal messages left choices up to them. Receiving these messages that required women to decide for themselves reduced the women’s intention to breastfeed (p<0.001). Conclusions: In this sample of largely nulliparous university women, a more strictly worded message regarding alcohol use during breastfeeding did not reduce breastfeeding intentions. Messages that left decisions up to the women did. The risk of harm associated with alcohol consumption during breastfeeding should we weighed against the risk that raising concerns about alcohol consumption might reduce the initiation or duration of breastfeeding. Research is needed to test such messages in different cultures and to follow up after delivery to see if indeed expressed intent correlates with actual practices. Until then, messages regarding breastfeeding and alcohol are likely to continue to be based only on the unexamined assumptions as to whether cautions about alcohol will affect women’s breastfeeding practices.

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“O jardim todo pesquisar me cumpre”: um estudo sobre O paraíso perdido, de John Milton

Revista do Centro de Estudos Portugueses ◽

10.17851/2359-0076.30.44.55-72 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 30 (44) ◽

pp. 55

Author(s):

Luiz Fernando Ferreira Sá

Keyword(s):

John Milton ◽

Paradise Lost ◽

Western Culture ◽

17Th Century ◽

The Body ◽

Biblical Narratives ◽

Epic Poem

Este artigo analisa o poema épico O paraíso perdido do escritor inglês John Milton, em suas relações de proximidade e distanciamento do que entendemos normalmente das idéias associadas aos jardins edênicos. Este artigo também passa em revista a alegoria do jardim na cultura ocidental até a Inglaterra do século XVII, relaciona o jardim de O paraíso perdido com as narrativas bíblicas e finaliza concluindo que, após “O jardim todo pesquisar”, nas palavras de Satã, não há jardim geo-gráfico, mas tão-somente o corpo que constrói um paraíso ditoso. This essay analyses John Milton’s Paradise lost with a view to establishing relations of proximity and distancing from what we ordinarily think of the ideas associated with edenic gardens. This essay also comments on the allegory of the garden in our Western culture up until 17th-century England, relates the garden depicted in the epic poem to biblical narratives, and ends by concluding, tentatively, that, after “This garden, and no corner leave unspied” (IV, 529), in Satan’s words, there is no geo-graphic garden, but only the body that makes up a Paradise within.

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