عنوان

Body, self, and society :

(Number (ISBN

0812213971 (pbk. : alk. paper)

(Number (ISBN

0812231805 (cloth : alk. paper)

(Number (ISBN

9780812213973 (pbk. : alk. paper)

(Number (ISBN

9780812231809 (cloth : alk. paper)

Number

b415442

Title Proper

Body, self, and society :

General Material Designation

[Book]

Other Title Information

the view from Fiji /

First Statement of Responsibility

Anne E. Becker.

Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.

Philadelphia :

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

University of Pennsylvania Press,

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

c1995.

Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item

xvi, 206 p. :

Other Physical Details

ill. ;

Dimensions

24 cm.

Series Title

New cultural studies

Text of Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. [191]-199) and index.

Text of Note

In Body, Self, and Society Anne E. Becker examines the cultural context of the embodied self through her ethnography of bodily aesthetics, food exchange, care, and social relationships in Fiji. She contrasts the cultivation of the body/self in Fijian and American society, arguing that the fascination of Americans with and motivation to work on their bodies' shapes as a personal endeavor is permitted by their notion that the self is individuated and autonomous. On the other hand, because Fijians concern themselves with the cultivation of social relationships largely expressed through nurturing and food exchange, there is a vested interest in cultivating others' bodies rather than one's own. So while Fijians vigilantly pay attention to weight and appetite changes among community members, they demonstrate a striking relative disinterest in self-reflexive work on the body. In chapters on attitudes toward body shape, the social dynamics of food exchange, and the collective appropriation of the body's space and experience in reproduction and illness, Dr. Becker demonstrates how the individual body is communally observed, cared for, worked upon, and interpreted in Fiji, and how it is in many ways regarded and experienced as a manifestation of its community rather than of the self. Indeed, Fijian embodied experience not only reflects and encompasses community processes but also at times transcends the body's physical boundaries, in essence revealing that Western notions about the discreteness and circumscription of embodied experience and the fixed identity between body and self are our own particular cultural metaphor.

Body image-- Fiji-- Singatoka (Western Division)

Ethnology-- Fiji-- Singatoka (Western Division)

Ethnopsychology-- Fiji-- Singatoka (Western Division)

Human body-- Social aspects-- Fiji-- Singatoka (Western Division)ts.

Identity (Psychology)-- Fiji-- Singatoka (Western Division)

Anthropology, Cultural-- Fiji.

Body Image-- Fiji.

Eating Disorders-- epidemiology-- Fiji.

Ethnopsychology-- Fiji.

Singatoka (Western Division, Fiji), Social life and customs.

0

Number

Edition

Class number

Book number

Class number

Becker, Anne E.

Date of Transaction

20130502102556.0

Electronic name

[Book]

Y