{"id":846,"date":"2023-12-12T17:12:18","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T22:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar473-fall2023\/?p=846"},"modified":"2023-12-22T12:24:42","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T17:24:42","slug":"class-5-inscribing-the-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar473-fall2023\/2023\/12\/12\/class-5-inscribing-the-body\/","title":{"rendered":"Class 5: Inscribing the Body"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Notes: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol>\n<li>Cultural (and identity based) construction of the inscribed body and the visual surface of the body as \u201cthe interface between the individual and society\u201d\n<ol>\n<li>\u201cBody as a text upon which social reality is inscribed\u201d (Foucault); body as subject and material object with personal agency and powerful materiality (rather than the \u201cdisembodied\u201d post structuralist body), vessel for outward communication and identity&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Liminal quality of the skin (interior vs exterior binary), boundary phenomena &#8211;&gt; \u201cskin ego\u201d as an interface between psyche and body, self and the other; Freud\u2019s \u201cmystic writing pad,\u201d the way memories and perceptions are entangled through the body\u2019s surface (\u201cwaiting for imprinting\u201d)\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Social skin: culture constructed and expressed through individual bodies, the \u201csocially informed or socialized body,\u201d relationship between the individual and the world in which they live in (Kayapo culture, specifically)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Effacing boundaries between time, mortality and the divine, social norms, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Ambivalence of inscribed skin<\/em> as a boundary due to the possibility of individual agency subverting externally imposed inscriptions; political control or domination (\u201ccanvas for inscription of political power,\u201d symbolic denial of personhood) as opposed to the \u201cagency of the individual in constructing a relationship between body and society\u201d\n<ol>\n<li>Sex workers, gang members, sailors, soldiers: voluntarily assumed markings that allow them to reclaim and gain power from the fusion of subjection and resistance; confronting the projected fantasies or prejudices of others<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Early Comparative Studies:\n<ol>\n<li>Body markings as a sign of savagery, juxtaposed against the pure, untouched \u201cGod-given\u201d body (linked to Protestant Reformation):&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Representation of the Exotic Other:\n<ol>\n<li>\u201cBody art thus worked its way into Western thought as a major trope in identifying both non Western peoples and the subaltern exotic within the West&#8221; &#8211;&gt; tattooed bodies of lower class Westerners became conflated with the exotic bodies of Africans, Asians, and Native Americans.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Empowerment and social control: women in the 20th century using it for subversive resistance to colonial power in Mozambique; engagement with colonial economy, images of modernity (sheds erotic meaning)\n<ol>\n<li>\u201cRewriting the the boundaries of difference,\u201d provided avenue for women to create networks of connection and associations among themselves&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>New Identities, Modernity, and Authenticity\n<ol>\n<li>\u201cMovements of cultural identity within pluralistic states, the commodification of body art, and the symbolic use of body art as political symbols by environmental and indigenous rights advocates are salient issues.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tattoo Renaissance: shift in practices of Western tattooing (change in clientele, style, iconography, and artists) &#8211;&gt; Is this really the right word for it? \n<ol>\n<li>Tattooing generally remains within European aesthetic tradition until the 1960s, when Polynesian and Japanese imagery became more popular: more travel, commercial success, influx of artistic stylistic trends (especially among the middle class)\n<ol>\n<li>Body art becomes more mainstream, though continues to redefine social boundaries; rise of \u201cextreme\u201d body modifications, pushing limits of acceptability (less art, more social protest)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ongoing and shifting relationship; body art and deviance, \u201cneo-primitive culture\u201d of tattooing that embraces this- idealized non-Western culture and alternative lifestyle (issues of cultural appropriation, authenticity, media culture, and consumerism)&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Consumer culture and body commodification&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Notes:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11517,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar473-fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar473-fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar473-fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar473-fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11517"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar473-fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar473-fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":851,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar473-fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846\/revisions\/851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar473-fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar473-fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar473-fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}