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raxThis is four short pieces; I have no idea what I am getting into here whatsoever.
THE NOTION OF BODY TECHNIQUES
"By [body techniques] I mean the ways in which from society to society men know how to use their bodies." So this ties immediately into the "what can a body do?" question which I associate with D&G but I think is Spinozan, and also with the idea of the habitus, although specifically tied to the body. I think Mauss is older than Bourdieu?
Natural science will find new truths in the "miscellaneous?" OK, I'll go along for this ride. Oh hmm, he's a descriptive ethnologist, and he's observed things like how different cultures swim differently, and this is grouped as "miscellaneous" and this is frustrating. Yeah, I can see that. Whoah, old swimmers used to suck up water and spit it out? What the hell?
He also gives the example of English and French armies (...WWI?) marching differently to the point that they needed different buglers. OK. But what is this adding up to? He asks the same question. He realized that American ways of walking were coming over through the cinema and discovered these were learned behaviors that could transfer I-would-say-but-he-would-not memetically. And he's using the word habitus for this! Maybe this is where Bourdieu was pulling from?
He talks about needing a triple interpretation of the "total man" but I cannot find the three things in the interpretation in the paragraph. *grumble* biological sociological psychological maybe? I'm not sure. Hopefully he explains it later.
Apparently Maori women learn a way to talk that is challenging and "unnatural" --- of course, "there is perhaps no 'natural' way for the adult [to walk]."
...is the trinary technical, physical, magico-religious?
Techniques of the body comes from the division between techniques and rites. Techniques are "effective and traditional." "The body is man's first and most natural instrument." We are tool-users and tools alike?
PRINCIPLES OF THE CLASSIFICATION OF BODY TECHNIQUES
Sexual division of body techniques: He basically says "someone should look at this, I dunno."
Variations with age: Children know how to squat, adults do not, in his society. He suggests it would be useful not to give that up, but might shape the body to look more like the Neanderthal.
According to efficiency: Competence in the technical domain?
Transmission of the form: How the technique is learned.
BIOGRAPHICAL LIST OF BODY TECHNIQUES
Techniques of birth and obstetrics: Different cultures use different positions. Do you kill twins?
Techniques of infancy: Rearing and feeding, weaning --- cradle-use as important?
Adolescence: He claims this is less relevant for girls than for boys, especially in "so-called primitive countries." This is where people learn most of their technques.
Adult life: Sleep! (you can learn to sleep anywhere --- sleeping on a horse sounds badass, sleeping in a pile actually sounds kind of nice) Rest! (some people squat, some people stand up and lean on sticks, some people have tables, &c.) Movement! (walking, running, dancing, jumping, climbing, descent, swimming, pushing, pulling, lifting, and so on) Care of the body! Consumption! Reproduction! ... right, we get the idea.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
"What emerges very clearly from [these techniques] is that we are everywhere faced with physio-pscyho-sociological assemblages of series of actions." They can be assembled "precisely because they are assembled by and for social authority." Is there any relation here to the assemblages of D&G?
"Naturally, social life is not exempt from its stupidity and abnormalities. Error may be a principle. The French navy only recently began to teach its sailors to swim." <3
Huh, he talks about "psychotechnics." How do these differ from somatechnics?
I think he ends this with "What are the limits of what a body can do?" which is actually an interesting question.
Well, this was downright readable! ...sadly all I have left is Heidegger.
THE NOTION OF BODY TECHNIQUES
"By [body techniques] I mean the ways in which from society to society men know how to use their bodies." So this ties immediately into the "what can a body do?" question which I associate with D&G but I think is Spinozan, and also with the idea of the habitus, although specifically tied to the body. I think Mauss is older than Bourdieu?
Natural science will find new truths in the "miscellaneous?" OK, I'll go along for this ride. Oh hmm, he's a descriptive ethnologist, and he's observed things like how different cultures swim differently, and this is grouped as "miscellaneous" and this is frustrating. Yeah, I can see that. Whoah, old swimmers used to suck up water and spit it out? What the hell?
He also gives the example of English and French armies (...WWI?) marching differently to the point that they needed different buglers. OK. But what is this adding up to? He asks the same question. He realized that American ways of walking were coming over through the cinema and discovered these were learned behaviors that could transfer I-would-say-but-he-would-not memetically. And he's using the word habitus for this! Maybe this is where Bourdieu was pulling from?
He talks about needing a triple interpretation of the "total man" but I cannot find the three things in the interpretation in the paragraph. *grumble* biological sociological psychological maybe? I'm not sure. Hopefully he explains it later.
Apparently Maori women learn a way to talk that is challenging and "unnatural" --- of course, "there is perhaps no 'natural' way for the adult [to walk]."
...is the trinary technical, physical, magico-religious?
Techniques of the body comes from the division between techniques and rites. Techniques are "effective and traditional." "The body is man's first and most natural instrument." We are tool-users and tools alike?
PRINCIPLES OF THE CLASSIFICATION OF BODY TECHNIQUES
Sexual division of body techniques: He basically says "someone should look at this, I dunno."
Variations with age: Children know how to squat, adults do not, in his society. He suggests it would be useful not to give that up, but might shape the body to look more like the Neanderthal.
According to efficiency: Competence in the technical domain?
Transmission of the form: How the technique is learned.
BIOGRAPHICAL LIST OF BODY TECHNIQUES
Techniques of birth and obstetrics: Different cultures use different positions. Do you kill twins?
Techniques of infancy: Rearing and feeding, weaning --- cradle-use as important?
Adolescence: He claims this is less relevant for girls than for boys, especially in "so-called primitive countries." This is where people learn most of their technques.
Adult life: Sleep! (you can learn to sleep anywhere --- sleeping on a horse sounds badass, sleeping in a pile actually sounds kind of nice) Rest! (some people squat, some people stand up and lean on sticks, some people have tables, &c.) Movement! (walking, running, dancing, jumping, climbing, descent, swimming, pushing, pulling, lifting, and so on) Care of the body! Consumption! Reproduction! ... right, we get the idea.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
"What emerges very clearly from [these techniques] is that we are everywhere faced with physio-pscyho-sociological assemblages of series of actions." They can be assembled "precisely because they are assembled by and for social authority." Is there any relation here to the assemblages of D&G?
"Naturally, social life is not exempt from its stupidity and abnormalities. Error may be a principle. The French navy only recently began to teach its sailors to swim." <3
Huh, he talks about "psychotechnics." How do these differ from somatechnics?
I think he ends this with "What are the limits of what a body can do?" which is actually an interesting question.
Well, this was downright readable! ...sadly all I have left is Heidegger.