Paper
presented at the international seminar “Researching and applying metaphor II”,
Body, image schemata and cultural semantics
Christian Svendsen, Body,
image schemas and cultural semantics. The paper proposes that a revised version of Lakoff’s
“spatialization of form hypothesis” can be used as a
comparative analytic tool in cultural studies. It is argued that the art of
understanding conceptual systems and rising above one’s own prejudices is
closely connected with one’s body-image and language. Therefore the paper
presents a review of trends in cultural semantics, and in cultural studies with
focus on the body. Lakoff’s “spatialization
of form hypothesis” is presented and some problems with the use of it are
discussed . It is then tentatively shown how a dynamic version of Lakoff’s hypothesis can be used to analyze cultural
material, exemplified in a sketch of the traditional Chinese body-image. On the
background of this analysis some sociological consequences of the traditional
body-image in modern
“Many of our most important
truths are not physical truths, but truths that come about as a result of human
beings acting in accord with a conceptual system that cannot in any sense be
said to fit a reality completely outside of human experience. Where human
action is concerned, metaphysics, that is, our view of what exists and is real,
is not independent of epistemology in the broad sense of human understanding
and knowledge.”(Lakoff:1987:296).
·
Purpose of the paper
·
Conceptual systems, prejudices and understanding
As a historian of religions I try
to understand and describe the conceptual systems of other people, and their
social dimensions. Following Gadamar in his view of
understanding as a dialogue coloured by our
prejudices, (Gadamar:1975:245-267), I find it important to highlight these
prejudices, that seem to govern our strategies for understanding unknown
people. In order to understand somebody I have to know my prejudices and why I
categorize the other as someone I might understand. This must be done before I
choose my methods for collecting data, and start to analyze, in order not to
categorize the other persons expressions according to my own ideas stemming
from language, culture or socialisation. As Lakoff writes:
Objectivity
involves rising above prejudices. The primal prejudice is our own conceptual
system. To be objective, we must be beware that we have a particular conceptual
system, we must know what it is like, and we must be able to entertain
alternatives.”(Lakoff:1987:264).
Any data construction method or
analytic tool must by nature be ethnocentric. There is, however, profound
difference between explicit and implicit prejudices, and in what degree it can
be argued that the methods are open for cultural differences without loosing
the common human structures. Inspired by Lakoff and
Johnson I am trying to find a meta-cultural analytic tool for comparative
studies. Such a tool must necessarily be common human at a structural level,
and open for culture-specific ideas at the empirical level. I will argue that
the art of understanding conceptual systems and rising above one’s own
prejudices is intimately connected with one’s ideas about body and language.
The body because it seems to be our basic model for understanding of systems, a
system we use to map other systems, or at least a system that mirror other
systems, like cosmology, ideology and sociology. Language because linguistic
differences between languages implies conceptual differences in determination
of the nature of entities, properties and relations. In order to show this I
will make a brief review of language and body in comparative cultural studies.
·
Aspects of the tradition of cultural semantics
Cultural semantics have had two basic
trends, the one led by linguists interested in culture, the other by cultural
scientists interested in linguistics. Their common interest has been the categorisations, that language imposes on human experience.
Linguists like von Humboldt, Sapir and Sapir’s pupil Whorf felt that the grammatical differences
placed barriers between cultures. The most famous example is the differences
between time and space in Hopi-language, and time and space in Standard Indo
European (SAE) postulated by Whorf (Whorf:1952). (Note 1) The idea that
language structure basic trends in the conceptual system of its speakers is
known as the Sapir/Whorf-hypothesis.
Through Sapir
and other linguists, like Ullmann, analytic tools,
for analyzing conceptual systems were developed. A conceptual system was seen
as consisting of semantic fields, each build by basic meanings and relational
meanings, concentrating the analysis on focus-words and their links to other
terms. This method has been very influential, and prooven
its worth, in History of religions, for instance the excellent study on the
ontology in the Koran of Toshihiko Izutsu
(Izutsu:1964), and in other cultural studies, like Leo Weisgerber
study of the conceptual system in the German language (Weisgerber:1954). I
think, however, it has been a problem that both the basic meanings and the
relational meanings were disembodied. Therefore such semantic analysis presents
other conceptual systems without emphasis on the experiential center, man, for
whom this conceptual system was reality. Lakoff and
Johnson have, however, inherited much basic terminology from this tradition.
The anthropological tradition of
cultural semantics grew out of fieldwork with Boaz as the most important
figure. He studied American Indians, and realized that differences in
grammatical categories cover semantic information. Later anthropologists, like
Levi-Strauss took the terminology of linguists like Saussure
and Roman Jacobson, as the difference between langue and parole, diachrony and synchrony and binary opposition, as models
for anthropological analysis. This linguistic trend has since developed into
two of the most influential currents in modern Humanistic sciences,
Structuralism and the science of signs, Semiotics. In my own field, History of
religions, Chomskyan sentence-structures were
recently used as models for ritual analysis (Lawson & MacCauley:1990).
·
Metaphorical relationship among body-image, ideology, cosmology and sociology
in cultural studies
The importance of the body in
cultural studies was emphasized by Durkheim’s pupil
Hertz in his study of right and left. The right and left side of the human body
seem to have been used in most cultures as a categorizing principle, separating
sacred and profane, good and evil (Needham:1973:3-31). In Mauss’
study on body-techniques it was clearly shown that movements are taught, and
contain semantic information being social constructions (Mauss:1979). This
tradition had strong impact on anthropological thought, as it is expressed in
for instance the thought of E.E. Pritchard (Needham:1973:92-108) and Mary
Douglas (Douglas:1970/1973). Mary Douglas describes the body as a symbolic
system, as a metaphor for society. Sickness was therefore just symbolic mirroring
of problems in society. Fear and insecurity in social relationships are
expressed in theories about the order in the body. Good and evil, sacred and
profane are expressions of order and chaos in society and body.
Many anthropological fieldworks
and historical studies have shown the intimate relationship - or should I say
the metaphorical projection - among body, society, cosmology and ideology, for
instance the studies of Bruce Lincoln on the body, mythology and society in
Indo-European traditions (Lincoln:1986), Constance Classen
on the body, ideology and cosmology among the Incas (Classen:1993), Vicanne Adams on body, religion and power among Sherba-Tibetans (Adams:1992), Anders Olerud
on the intimate connection between microcosm and macrocosm in Plato’s Timaios and related classical traditions (Olerud:1951) and
Leonard Barkan on the body and cosmology in European
thought (Barkan:1975). In some ways my principle project illustrated in this
essay is to find ways to study the phenomenon that the body seems to be a
metaphorical source domain for target domains as sociology, cosmology and
ideology. The words of Alfredo Lopez Austin in his foreword to a study of the
relationship between the body and ideology in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica (
Concepts
about the human organism guided and justified the practical behavior of the
different components of society. Differences between sexes, ages, social
groups, relationships in government, the division and distribution of work,
moral values, and the foundation of social control rested to a large degree on
the concept of the human body, a concept that made slaves physically different
from the free, the bad different from the good.. There was a whole complex of
ideas by which the universe was conceived as a projection of the human body
and, inversely, explained human physiology in relation to the general processes
of the cosmos. (Austin 1988:3)
· Lakoff, Johnson and cultural semantics
Lakoff and Johnson combine the themes here discussed:
The relationship among body, language and understanding. The meta-cultural
common human (note 2) linguistic interface between the interpreter and the
interpreted is the embodiment of language, structured by two a priori
structures, basic level concepts and their arrangement in cognitive models
formed by image schemas in semantic fields called Idealized Cognitive Models.
Human experience is based on imagination, that is structured by the above
mentioned concepts and schemas, as opposed to the so-called objectivist view,
that do not place the linguistic body-structures of imagination in the centre
of semantics.
· Lakoff’s spatialization of form
hypothesis and my use of it
The image schemas are the
back-bone of Lakoff’s “spatial of form hypothesis”,
that he describes like this:
- Given
basic-level and image schematic concepts, it is possible to build up complex
cognitive models. - Image schemas provide the structures used in those models.
Recall for a moment some of the kinds of image-schemas that we have discussed:
schemas for CONTAINER, SOURCE-PATH-GOAL, LINK, PART-WHOLE, CENTER-PERIPHERY,
UP-DOWN, FRONT-BACK. These schemas structure our experience of space. What I
will be claiming is that the same schemas structure concepts themselves. In
particular, I maintain:
·Categories (in general) are understood in terms
of CONTAINER schemas
·Hierarchical structure is understood in terms of
PART-WHOLE schemas and UP-DOWN schemas.
·Relational structure is understood in terms of
LINK schemas
·Radial structure in categories is understood in
terms of CENTER-PERIPHERY schemas
·Foreground-background structure is understood in
terms of FRONT-BACK schemas
·Linear quantity scales are understood in terms of
UP-DOWN schemas and LINEAR ORDER schemas.
I
will refer to this general view a The Spatialization
of Form Hypothesis
(Lakoff:1987:283-284).
From this hypothesis I have
tentatively developed a holistic analytic tool for comparative cultural
studies. I use the invariable linguistic structures of the “spatialization
of form hypothesis” to structure variable cultural ideas of the body,
cosmology, ideology and sociology. My revised version of this hypothesis as a
structure for experiential spaces include other image schemas as balance,
conduits, cycle and others in order to include the dynamic aspect, and I
emphasize the spatial aspects of the container-metaphor.
The analysis itself consists
basically of linguistic analysis of texts using sources that describe a person
or culture’s understanding of man. As a historian of religions interested in
body-images it is often religious and medical texts, but it might be all kinds
of text. First I try to find whether, and if, how this language expresses the
image schemas. I search for the following:
Container balance compulsion blockage counterforce restraint removal
enablement attraction mass-count path
link center/periphery cycle near-far
scale part-whole merging splitting full-empty matching superimposition
iteration contact process surface object collection source-path-goal up-down front-back linearity
(inspired by Johnson:1987:126).
I must be prepared for that some
languages may not have linguistic possibilities to express image schemas. If terms
for “in” or “out” - or other equivalent to the container schema - are not to be
found in their language, then my analysis must be based on other image schemas.
If no image schemas can be found I must admit that the use of the image schemas
as a comparative tool has been falsified. If, however, a image-schema is
expressed in the language my source is written in, I tag all places in the text
with a mark distinguishing this image schema.
In my candidate thesis I carried
out such an tentative analysis of the experiential world and body view in an
ancient Greek textual corpus from Hellenistic time, using some of the image
schemas.
After such an analysis using the
image-schemas, I spatialize the results. As a
structural level, it would look like this in the Greek texts I worked with, but
working with other cultures, say the Huba Indians in
Tentative model of common human
structures in the construction of experiential cultural spaces:
Basic level concepts and categories:
Distinction among forms (small
containers), groups (clusters of forms) and surroundings
(large containers): Container (inside-outside) part-whole
center-periphery up/down front/back links conduits
Dynamic relations between basic level concepts and
categories:
Dynamic change of position of
forms or groups within surroundings:
path - source, direction,
goal cycle scale
front-back up/down near/far
Dynamic exchange among forms,
groups and surroundings: cycle
full-empty conduits link balance attraction
mass-count scale up/down part/whole
front-back
Dynamic changes of forms, groups
or surroundings as a result of expansion :
counterforce superimposition compulsion splitting restraint removal part/whole
path: source, direction,
goal cycle attraction blockage balance
scale front-back up/down
Dynamic changes of forms, groups
or surroundings as a result of collapse:
counterforce superimposition compulsion splitting restraint removal path - source, direction, goal cycle
attraction blockage balance
scale front-back up/down
Creation of forms, groups or
surroundings:
Attraction conduits
link part/whole cycle
merging splitting path: source,
direction, goal
Currently I try to operationalize the image schemas for data-construction in
qualitative interviews. And I am investigating the possibilities to make the
results of such an analysis available as a three dimensional “experiential
space” on the Internet coded in VRML (Virtual Reality Modelling
Language) that is supported by internet-browsers.
· Are
image schemas common human structures?
The question arises whether there
can be found linguistic basis for the image schemas in all human languages.
Though “Metaphors we live by” could be seen as an empirical test of image
schemas in English and American, it has not yet been shown that they also have
empirical basis in other languages like ancient Greek, Chinese or ancient
Egyptian.
Until such studies have been
made, only tentative use of the image schemas can be made. In Chinese, for
instance, the container schema shows itself clearly in words as “li” or “nei” for “inside”, and in
“biao” and “wai” for
“outside”. In Egyptian, however, the m (written as an owl - the bird) can be
translated with “inside or in”, but have many other meanings, as “when”, “with”
“as” and “like”. (A very interesting problem of metaphor/analogy/comparison and
category-container in one word, mirroring basic aspects of ancient Egyptian
multidimensional thinking). But a trained Egyptologist almost always knows when
an owl means “inside”. Whether understanding of another culture or time happens
through linguistic, hermeneutic or anthropological glasses - or all of them -
the successful investigation, and the degree scientific depth, always depends
on the researcher’s mastery of the communicative interface.
· Can
the invariable body-image of Lakoff and Johnson
contain variable body-images?
Another question is whether the
body-image, that forms our conceptual thinking, is a transcultural
biological invariable, or a cultural variable? I think this question can be
answered like this: Lakoff understands the body-image
as a structure of shape:
Consider
the concept of MAN. It comes with a rich mental image, characterizing overall
shape. The image of the man is structured as having an UP-DOWN organisation; it is structured as a container having an
INSIDE and an OUTSIDE; it is also structured as a WHOLE with PARTS; and so
on’”(Lakoff:1987:280).
But common human shape does not
determine the meaningful cultural experience of this shape Our categories are a
matter of cultural convention, within the borders of what our common human body
makes possible:
The fact
that we categorize different wavelenghts as being in
the same color category partly depends on human physiology. Color
categorization is also partly a matter of cultural convention since different
cultures have different boundaries for basic color
categories.”(Lakoff:1987:198).
· Conceptual
description of the traditional Chinese body-image, based on an analysis using
the images schemas
Now I will draw a sketch of the
traditional Chinese body-image in order to convey my vision of the perspectives
of the revised spatialization of form hypothesis. It
is, however in no way anything but a superficial sketch
In modern
The traditional model used in the
hospitals has been secularized, but the underlying model rests on a very old
textual tradition, dating at least 2000 years back, with the “Yellow Emperor’s
classic on internal medicine” (Veith:1972) as the most important, and still
authoritative scripture. In this book the human body and its links with the
universe is described in dialogues between the Chinese culture hero the Yellow
Emperor and his doctor Qi Po. The terminology used,
is shared with classic philosophical, cosmological, religious and martial arts
traditions: Terms like the all-embracing cosmic harmony, Dao (the way and the
word ), the all-embracing binary pair of oppositions, yin and yang, the five
phases of cyclic changes (wood, fire, earth, metal and water), and the vital
principle “qi” that link microcosm and microcosm are
shared by all classical traditions.
In the traditional medicine the
body is described with three parts, head, body and feet, mirroring the
cosmology with three parts, heaven, man and the earth. The head and heaven is
associated with the circle, the feet and earth with the square - a pattern that
can be recognized on traditional Chinese coins.
The organs in the body are
divided in six Zhang organs (containers that store) and six Fu organs
(“shallow” conduits). They are categorized in pairs, respectively associated
with yin and yang. The great majority of organs are comparable to the organs
described in Western anatomy, though they have wider connotations. Organs as
the Circulation-organ or the San-Jiao-organ (the three burning spaces) are,
however, not known in Western anatomy. San Jiao includes the three levels in
the trunk, and describe the function of these organs as interconnected as
earth, man and heaven: The cinnober field (dan tian) below the navel, the
heart and the brain. Each of the twelve organs are linked to one of the five
cyclic phases, and thereby parts of a complex cyclic system, that categorize
everything in the universe from seasons and directions to tastes and
physiological conditions in a dynamic system.
A complex network of
vital-energy-conduits connects the organs, the surface of the body and the
outer cosmos, accessible for manipulation at certain acupuncture points (xue - caves) on the surface of the skin. There are twelve
main conduits, each directly linked to one of the twelve organs. Two additional
meridians run in a circular circuit vertically round the middle of the trunk.
Apart from these fourteen meridians, several smaller are known. The vital
energy running in these conduits is of three kinds: Rong-qi
or nourishing-qi, wei-qi or
protecting-qi and yuan-qi,
the inherited qi.
In modern Chinese “qi” can be translated as a prototype with radial structure
The basic meaning of “qi” is “moved air”. From this
prototypical meaning two meanings radiates out, human breath and nature`s breath. The human breath is associated with
feelings and human powers - remembering our discussion about anger as steam -
as furious (qifen), strength (qili),
boldness of vision (qipo), complexion (qise), temperament (qixing),
arrogance (qiyan), angry (shengqi),
breathe (xiqi), get angry (dongqi),
weep - drink - silent tears (yinqi), integrity (qijie), tone or manner in speaking (yuqi)
and luck (yunqi). The breath of nature is associated
with weather (the qi of heaven-tianqi),
climate (qihou), balloon (qiqiu),
(air-)temperature (qiwen), barometric pressure (qiya).
Both in the strictly medical and
the more religious models of the body, the body-as-society-metaphor shows
itself explicitly:
The heart
is like the minister of the monarch who excels through insight and
understanding; the lungs are the symbol of the interpretation and conduct of
the official jurisdiction and regulation; the liver has the functions of a
military leader who excels in his strategic planning; the gall bladder occupies
the position of an important and upright official who excels through his
decisions; the middle of the thorax is like the official of the center who
guides the subjects in joy and pleasures; the stomach acts as the official of
the public granaries and grants the five tastes. The lower intestines are like
the officials who propagate the Right Way of Living, and they generate
evolution and change; the small intestines are like the officials who are
trusted with riches, and they create changes of the physical substance; the
kidneys are like the officials who do energetic work, and they excel through
their ability and cleverness; the burning spaces are like the officials who
plan the construction of ditches and sluices, and they create waterways; the
groins and the bladder are like magistrates of a region or a district, they
store the overflow and the fluid secretions which serve to serve to regulate
vaporization. These twelve officials should not fail to assist one another
(Veith:1972:133).
A sick body has been invaded (qin), and the doctor must attack (gong) the sickness. The
term for healing, controlling the rivers and govern the country is the same :
To control (zhi). The diagnosis is based on physical
examination and taking of the pulse. Each wrist opens up for pulse-communication
with six organs. This pulse-taking is highly important, as the analysis depends
on the doctors experience, and the complex network between the five phases,
time and space. Health and sickness is the same for body, as for society. The
text cited above continues:
When the
monarch is intelligent and enlightened, there is peace and contentment among
his subjects; they can thus beget offspring, bring up their children, earn a
living and lead a long and happy life. And because there are no more dangers
and perils, the earth is considered glorious and prosperous. But when the
monarch is not intelligent, the twelve officials become dangerous and perilous;
the Dao is obstructed and blocked (Veith:1972:133-134)
· Sociological
consequences of the traditional body-image in modern
The experiential space of the
traditional Chinese body-image is the background for a social phenomenon that
the last fifteen years have boomed in China as the largest mass movement in
China beyond governmental control, qi-gong.
Methods for consciously trying to
control and manipulate the human qi has had a special
importance in medicine, religion and martial arts. This control is called work-with-qi, or qigong, and consists of breath-and body exercises.
The successful control and manipulation of the qi in
one’s own body are the central issues in Daoistic
alchemy, all the inner Martial arts and many of the meditative techniques both
in Chinese Buddhism and Daoism. One of the important aspects of the
manipulation of qi is the circular build up of
internal energy (jin), and the projection of this
energy outside one’s body for purposes of healing, fighting or spiritual
growth. Other aspects are the ability to attract objects without touching them,
walk through walls, visions of Gods, Goddesses and Boddhisatvas,
and read minds (Shidai:1989:40).
During my stay in
Martial arts and breath-exercises
have been practiced continuously under the People’s Republic, but after the
economic and political reforms of 1979 the social forms of expression changed.
Then charismatic qi-gong masters, often claiming to
belong to a Daoist or Buddhist tradition, started to
make rallies for many thousand people, and create extensive organisations
with strong social and economic structure and terminology, that mirror the New
Religious Movements (NRM) in the West. The only difference is that these NRMs in
There seems, however, to be
reluctance against being tagged religious, because this has bad connotations of
the “old society” before the revolution in 1949. Moreover religion is in
opposition to the keywords for
The God and
Goddess you mentioned earlier have been proved by scholarly research to be
imaginary figures, existing only in fables and legends. How could you then see
them as if they were real people?” “When you reason with me like this, I too
cannot explain these things. I no longer believe them myself” (Shidai:1994:30).
The Daoist
master Wang Li Ping enjoys widespread respect as a healer. Though his goal,
obviously is a large-scale revival of Daoism, he very carefully emphasizes
healing and meditation as a tool for learning how to heal, at his rallies.
The government only tolerates qi-gong as part of public approved medicine (note 3), or
public approved religious groups. Therefore all individuals, who are not part
of an approved religious group, or have been approved as qi-gong
doctors, stand in the danger of being tagged as being superstitious (mixin), being practitioners of witchcraft or adherents of
feudal society. Therefore most teachers emphasize the medical aspects, and try
to get scientific proof for their feats.
Qi-gong is judged on a scale with superstition on
one side and science on the other. If it cannot be proven scientifically to
have an effect, it must be categorized as feudal superstition, and a dangerous
relic from the old society. If the scientific accept is granted qi-gong is seen as an important national symbol and a
Chinese distinctive feature.
· Summary
One of the great problems in
cultural studies is how to define common standards in comparative studies. The
scholarly tradition has suggested that our conceptual systems are strongly
governed by our body-image and by linguistic structures in our language. I have
proposed that language and body contain the basic models for prejudices
inherent in conceptual systems. Through the revised version Lakoff’s
spatialization of form hypothesis I tentative
describe other conceptual systems as experiential body-centered spaces. And I
have tried to show how aspects of the Chinese body-image can be opened through
such an analysis.
Notes:
Note 1:
I must admit that I think his
description of Hopi was influenced by his search for a language that could
express the experiences he knew from his education as chemist. Later research
has refuted many of his claims. His thoughts have, however, had important
impact on linguists like Lakoff, and generally on the
idea of relativity in cultural studies, and are still intriguing:
The SAE
microcosm has analyzed reality largely in terms of what it calls “things”
(bodies and quasi-bodies) plus modes of extensional but formless existence that
it calls “substances” or “matter”. It tends to see existence through a binomial
formula that expresses any existent as a spatial form plus a spatial formless
continuum related to the form as contents is related to the outlines of its
container. Non-spatial existents are imaginatively spatialized
and charged with similar implications of form and continuum. The Hopi microcosm
seems to have analyzed reality largely in terms of events (or better “eventing”), referred to in two ways, objective and
subjective. Objectively, and only if perceptible physical experience, events
are expressed mainly as outlines, colors, movements and other perceptible
reports. Subjectively, for both the physical and non-physical, events are
considered the expression of invisible intensity factors, on which depend their
stability and persistence, or their fugitiveness and proclivities. It implies
that existents do not “become later and later” all in the same way; but some do
so by growing, like plants, some by diffusing and vanishing, some by a
procession of metamorphoses, some by enduring in one shape till affected by
violent forces. In the nature of each existentable to
manifest as a definite whole is the power of its own mode of duration; it growth,decline, stability, cyclicity
or creativeness. Everything is thus already “prepared” for the way it now
manifests by earlier phases, and what it will be later, partly has been, and
partly is in the act of being so “prepared”. An emphasis and importance rests
on this preparing or being prepared aspect of the world may to the Hopi
correspond to that “quality of reality” that “matter” or “stuff” has for us
(Whorf:1952:36).
Note 2:
“The
concepts that are directly meaningful ( the basic-level and image-schematic
concepts) are directly tied to structural aspects of experience. This makes the
account of meaningfulness internal to human beings. Since bodily experience is
constant experience of the real world that mostly involves successful
functioning, stringent real-world constraints are placed on conceptual
structure. This avoids subjectivism. Since image schemas are common to all
human beings, as are the principles that determine basic-level concepts,
total relativism is ruled out, though limited relativism is
permitted.”(Lakoff:1987:268).
“The existence
of directly meaningful concepts - basic-level concepts and image schemas -
provides certain fixed points in the objective evalutation
of situations. The image-schematic structuring of bodily experience is, we
hypothesize, the same for all human beings.”(Lakoff:1987:302).
Note 3
My thesis
was a very tentative study, with much fumbling in the blind. If I could redo
the thesis, it would look much different, with much more attention to
empirical, litterary analysis.
Note 4
This must
not be seen an attack on Chinese regulations. The Danish law on quackery is
just as strict.
Litterature:
Adams, Vincanne
(1992) The production of self and body in Sherpa-Tibetan
society in Anthropological approaches
to the study of ethnomedicine, ed. By Mark Nichter,
Austin, Alfredo Lopez (1988) The human body and Ideology - concepts of
the Ancient Nahuas I-II,
Barkan, Leonard (1975) Natures work og art, The human body as an
image of the world,
Bateson, Gregory (1972) Steps towards an ecology of mind,
Berger, P.L. & Luckmann, T. (1967) The
social construction of reality,
Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction,
a social critique of the judgement of taste,
Christmann, Hans Helmuth (1967) Beitrage zur Geschichte der These vom Weltbild
der Sprache, Akademie der Wissenschaft
und der Literatur,Abh. Der geistes-und socialwissenschaften Klasse,1966,
Classen, Constance (1993) Inca cosmology and the human body,
Decaux, Jacques (1985) Le canon de l’empereur jaune,
Institut Ricci,
Despeux, Catherine (1994) Taoisme et corps humaine, Guy Tredaniel Editeur
Despeux, Catherine (1996) Le corps, champ spatio-temporel, souche d’identite,
in L’homme 137, p.87-118
Feher, Michel et al. (1989) Fragments for a history of the human body, vol
Feuchtwang Stephan (1992) The imperial metaphor,
Foucault, Michel (1976) Histoire de la sexualite
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Foucault, Michel (1980) Power/knowledge,
Friedmann, Jonathan (1988) Persondannelse og det medicinske felt - tre
modeller, in Smitte, Stofskifte nr.18,
Tidsskrift for Antropologi, Kobenhavn, p.147-156
Gadamer, Hans-Georg
(1960/1990) Wahrheit und Methode,
Gehlen, A. (1988) Man,
his nature and place in the world,
Humboldt, W. von Uber die verschiedenheit
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Biographical note: Christian Svendsen
graduated in 1995 from the
You can
contact me on: lingzhi999@hotmail.com
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