The body as cultural object/the body as pan-cultural universal

Maxine Sheets-Johnstone

pp. 85-114

in: Mano Daniel, Lester Embree (eds), Phenomenology of the cultural disciplines, Berlin, Springer, 1994

Abstract

In addition to implicitly carrying forward a Cartesian-inspired depreciative assessment of the body, many cultural disciplines (including philosophy) have been heavily influenced by postmodern dogma which basically regards the body as little more than a cultural artifact. Received wisdom and dogma together preclude an appreciation of the body as pan-cultural universal. A consideration of early stone tools in the light of phenomenological corporeal matters of fact shows how the body is the source of fundamental meanings, a semantic template. The analogy between the two major hominid tooth forms—molars and incisors—and the major early stone tools—core tools and flake tools—is in fact obvious once animate form and the tactile-kinesthetic body—the sensorily felt body—is recognized. A consideration of the experience of eyes as windows on two worlds exemplifies a further dimension of the body as pan-cultural universal. The experience of eyes as centers of light and dark is tied to an intercorporeal semantics that is rooted in morphological/visual relationships and attested to by biologist Adolf Portmann's notion of inwardness. The experience is furthermore shown to be the basis of cultural practices and beliefs related to the creation of circular forms such as the mandala. Phenomenological attention to corporeal matters of fact as exemplified by paleoanthropological artifacts, by the experience of inwardness, and by cultural drawings of circular forms underscores the desirability of a corporeal turn, an acknowledgment of animate form and of the tactile-kinesthetic experiences that consistently undergird hominid life.