| Description |
1 online resource (127 pages) : illustrations (black and white, and colour) |
| Contents |
Chapter 1 Introduction: Experiences of the Physical Body -- Part I Body and Space -- Chapter 2 The Social Body of Women: Patriarchal Ideology and Women-centred Kin Networks among Chinese Households in Malaysia -- Chapter 3 A Body Out of Place: Pollution and Pregnancy of Hakka Chinese in Sarawak, Malaysia -- Part II Imperfect Bodies: Communication and the Body as Media -- Chapter 4 The Embodiment of the Deaf in Japan: A Set of Heuristic Models for Identity, Belonging and Sign Language Use -- Chapter 5 Playing about with Our Imperfect Bodies: Representations of Physical Disability in Balinese Mask Drama Topeng |
| Summary |
This book seeks to break new ground, both empirically and conceptually, in examining changing understandings of the physical human body from a variety of anthropological perspectives. In doing so, it interrogates how the body has been and continues to be conceptualised, experienced and interacted with. After an introductory appraisal of recent approaches to understanding the body, the book provides empirically rich accounts from East and Southeast Asia of how cultural, environmental and social norms shape human physicality. The contributions are organised in four broad themes. Part I, Body and Space, offers two contrasting case studies from Malaysia, both of which examine gender norms associated with marriage and pregnancy, including the taboos associated with these rites of passage. Part II, Imperfect Bodies: Communication and the Body as Media, analyses two case studiesDeaf people in Japan and masked theatre performance in Bali, Indonesia, to reflect on changing attitudes towards disability, which reflect broader social norms and cultural beliefs about the nature of disability and its place in society. Part III, The Body and Image, provides a pair of case studies from Singapore, on male fans of the popular manga boys love genre and on ways that the Chinese zodiac system is determined from birth and continues to be spiritually embedded in the body of a Chinese individual through ritual practices. Part IV, The Body as Container: Taming the Bodies?, presents a single case study from Thailand of spirit possession among schoolchildren. Though wide-ranging, all the case studies posit that the body is a site of constant negotiation. The way the body is presented and the way it is seen are shaped by a complex array of social, cultural, political and ideational factors. Anthropology through the Experience of the Physical Body is a valuable interdisciplinary work for advanced students and researchers interested in representations of the body in East and Southeast Asia and for those with wider interests in the field of critical anthropology. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on January 17, 2024) |
| Subject |
Human body -- Social aspects.
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Ethnology.
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Human body -- Social aspects -- East Asia -- Case studies
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Ethnology -- East Asia -- Case studies
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Human body -- Social aspects -- Southeast Asia -- Case studies
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Ethnology -- Southeast Asia -- Case studies
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| Author |
Fushiki, Kaori, editor
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Sakurada, Ryoko, 1975- editor.
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| ISBN |
9819957249 |
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9789819957248 |
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