Is the Body a Social Construction?

The body has been cut, burned, exploited, sexualized, glorified, abused and stretched out to its limits, as a form of curiosity in art. The body has been a central theme throughout art history and in the contemporary world today. It is recognized as a symbol of identity, social politics, culture and belonging. Art cannot be made without the presence of the body and its interaction with the material world. Artists have continually tried to redefine the meaning behind the encounters of the body and the body as the medium. From early works in Western paintings and sculpture, the body served as an idealized figure, only made to represent the mythical, biblical, the rich and historical figures. The representations of the body seem to only serve

It has been shown that the skull has the second greatest degree of sexual dimorphism with reported accuracies for sex determination as high as 77% (Stewart, 1979), 80-90% (Hanihara, 1959; Krogman, 1962; Cox and Mays, 2000) and even >95% (Baughan and Demirjian, 1978; Briggs, 1998; Franklin, Freedman and Milne, 2005; Kimmerle, Ross and Slice, 2008). However, it is thought that novice forensic anthropologists might report lower accuracies than these since, for example Stewart (1979) and Krogman (1962) had highly experienced participants analysing the skeletal remains. Moreover, some disagree that the skull is the second most sexually dimorphic and argue that certain postcranial measurements for example of the long bones, fare

The physical body has been seen as many things both positive and negative. It can be thought of as the temple which houses the soul or can be seen as entrapping, like a cage of flesh. More often it seems that the body, especially women’s bodies, are looked at in more complicated ways than the bodies of men. As I grew up, it began to feel more and more like my body, and the bodies of other women, did not actually belong to us like we believed. Through my Women’s Studies class I have gained more knowledge on the body as a political object. In this essay I will examine six different articles with the similar theme of women’s bodies, the expression of those bodies and how by using feminism as a political standpoint they gain power and ownership of their bodies.

Individuals within society are constantly strained by the way they should present themselves as they conform to their gender roles. For instance, is this outfit too tarty? What will people think if I wear it? Are the questions that several ladies ask themselves when choosing to clothe as they face the challenge of maintaining their femininity through the way they dress as they abide by their social constructions of gender (Holmes 2007).Subsequently, this essay seeks to explore to what extent the body is central to social organisation and control in relation to gender and will make reference to two theoretical approaches which include: biological essentialism and the social constructionist framework to aid the response. In order to further illustrate

In Andean society many societies and cultures generally believed that all things, such as mountains, rivers, and waterfalls had life (Benson 2001: 1). The Andean individuals believed that all inanimate objects were thus animated. This ideology not only influenced the way they thought about the world, but also the way they treated and viewed the body. The body is a very important and useful theme in archeology as the body acts as a metaphor for society, the way a society/culture treats the body provides vital important regarding their worldview. In addition, the body is a tool of lived experience which can indicate how individuals lived, what was sacred or important to them and also shedding light on who they were. In other words, by understanding how bodies were conceptualized in Andean societies archeologist can indicate the significance of certain ritual practices. It is important to deconstruct the body as it provides social truths regarding a specific culture within the Andean region. Furthermore, people do things to their bodies which may help archeologists understand their belief system, the practices/work they may have been doing. For example, if an individual spends their whole life grinding corn the body would reflect this activity and thus would be able provide information regarding that culture. This theme concerning ‘the body’ pushes us to consider distinct ontologies as different cultures and societies developed differently and thus has diverse beliefs,

Throughout history, society has turned subjects like culture, race, gender, and sexuality into social and cultural constructs while using biology as a sort of “proof of existence.” This topic raises several different questions that must be answered: how are these social/cultural constructs instead of something that is naturally occurring, why have we naturalized these concepts, and why must we “de-naturalize” this sort of expectation that we hold for people?

Johansson and his team found half a pelvis, among the bones, providing them with important information about the gender of the fossil. (Johanson,

Modern culture dictates strict canons of physical standards, distributed through a variety of mechanisms of social regulation. Women’s bodies are given special attention in the public discourse, and therefore the concern about the body, its size and shape, becoming prescribed and normative. Social networks not only serve as a platform to broadcast physical culture ideals, but also offer opportunities for collective reflection, exchange of experiences and development of own versions of physical beauty.

The more gracile features that denote a female typically include the smaller size or often nonexistence of certain features found on the skeleton including but not limited to the nuchal crest, mastoid process, and brow ridges. Also, the average height of a female is shorter than that of the average male. Due to this difference in skeletal structure, most of the bones in the female skeleton should in some form be sexually dimorphic. The trend of smaller features is of course excluding the pelvic girdle, on which most female features are larger and rounder due to the skeletal requirements of childbirth. Given the above statement, it is reasonable to predict that there would be a distinguishable difference between the metacarpal of a male and a female. Studies have proved that metacarpals are sexually dimorphic, and can be used to identify the sex of a skeleton in both Egyptian and Tai populations. Due to these past studies, it is logical to assume that the same sexually dimorphism can be found in the European population. If successful this study could develop an algorism to help determine the sex from just a single bone. This advancement in our knowledge of sex identification could propel cases, in which the sex of the induvial was undeterminable from the bones recovered.

The primary thesis of this reading is to define the varying theories of how the body is represented in a social and anthropological context. The process of contextualizing the body has been part of a 20th century movement to better understand how the human body is presented in western society. In the writer’s methodology, theories will be defined by Constructivist methods of evaluating the body, which involves examinations through history, society and culture. The principle argument of this text is that Constructivist evaluations provide a more symbolic meaning related to the human body, which is primarily a subjective evaluations of social norms, deviant perceptions, and stereotypes. Therefore, the sections on “embodiment” and “apotemnophilia:”

Objectified cultural capital – also introduced by Bourdieu – exists in the form of cultural goods, such as books, instruments, or art. This form of capital relates to aesthetic labor through workers’ possession and display of particular styles of clothing and/or other bodily accouterments, such as eyeglasses, jewelry, makeup, nail polish, etc. Drawing on Bourdieu, Wacquant (1995, 2004) introduced the concept of bodily capital to illustrate the body itself as a form of capital. Bodily capital resides in and is bounded by one’s corporeal body, through which individuals cultivate “abilities and tendencies liable to produce value” (Wacquant 1995, p. 67) in a given social world. Ashley Mears (Mears 2011), further used the concept of bodily capital in her research on fashion models to point out that, although a person can enhance his or her bodily capital, many elements that make up bodily capital, such as height, build, and/or skin color, are fixed, or at least very difficult to

The Civilised BodyIn this discussion we are going to examine what the "civilising process" is, how it leads to ones body becoming "civilised" and how this widens the divide between how we see the body as being part of society and as a purely biological entity. I will then attempt to examine how this new perception of the body fits in with our modern society and culture.

Many disciplines intervene when the research topic is on the concept of the body; as the sensations, the techniques of the bodily movements, the consumption or the expression styles have been investigated, methods and studies of the epistemology are getting varied as required. As well, the developing studies on the gender and identity cannot be considered without consulting the studies on the history of thinking about the

Ostensibly the body is the most holistic reflection of oneself, it is raw, conspicuous and present. Thus, anthropologists who arguably have the most holistic approach to social science, inevitably have incorporated the body into their study. However, the subject of the body has become ambivalent to anthropologists; irresolution arises from the body’s ubiquitousness but dynamic nature. When a subject has infinite complexities while being one of the best exhibits for how societies differ, change and function, anthropologists can either have a field-day or get a headache. Further, the introduction of enhancement technologies have revolutionised how the body functions within society; Ethnographies such as, 'The Poor Have the Right To Be Beautiful ': Cosmetic Surgery in Neoliberal Brazil’ Alexander Edmonds and ‘Medicalization of Racial Features: Asian American Women and Cosmetic Surgery’ Eugenia Kaw explore the interplay of technology and modernity with how one not only presents, but perceives their body. Both ethnographers explore the meaning of body modifications in the 21st century, questioning whether the body is not only a visual reflexive to politics and social order but embodies sociality and subjectivity.

In today’s society, men and women both have views that are considered “normal” to the general public imposed on him or her to some degree. Although women’s prejudices are more commonly discussed, it is important to note that men also face the same preconceptions. In the essay, “Beauty (Re)Discovers the Male Body,” Susan Bordo talks about these typical presumptions of men as she explores body gender roles through the use of ads and real life examples in her essay. The text stated, “Women may dread being surveyed harshly - being seen as too old, too fat, too flat-chested - but men are not supposed to enjoy being surveyed period. It’s feminine to be on display.” In other words, the role of gender in the ways images of the body is designed and presented has been forced into the mindset of people from a young age. Bordo contradicts this point in her writing by repeatedly arguing that this form of gender stereotype should be removed as a whole and that men should be able to present their body without judgments as well.