Researching Embodiment by Way of ‘Body Techniques’

Abstract

In this chapter I reflect upon the importance of Marcel Mauss’ concept of ‘body techniques’ for facilitating an empirical analysis of embodiment. I begin by arguing that sociology is not guilty of mind/body dualism, in the philosophical sense, but tends rather to take the embodiment of actions and practices for granted and thus to overlook it, much as Leder suggests happens more generally in everyday, lay experience. It is the purpose, knowledge-base and normativity of actions and practices that has tended to be thematized in sociology, I observe. The importance of Mauss’ concept, I continue, is that it thematizes embodiment, simultaneously drawing attention to the socio-cultural variability of particular ways of acting, without losing sight of purpose, knowledge or normativity. Indeed it draws all of these aspects of action together. Having made these points in an abstract manner, the chapter attempts to show how this innovation can and has shaped empirical work in social science. An empirical focus upon body techniques, I suggest, facilitates an empirical engagement with the embodiment of the social world.