Dr. Danica Škara UNIVERSITY OF ZADAR e-mail: dskara@unizd.hr

1. Dr. Danica ŠkaraUNIVERSITY OF ZADARe-mail: dskara@unizd.hr Lecture 3: THE BODY IN MIND: THE HUMAN SHAPE OF MODERN SOCIETY

2. Issues to be considered include: What is a human body? The historical review of the most prominent representations of the human body What are the dominant body metaphors ? Aims

3. FUZZY CONCEPT From Egyptianand Sumerian depictions of the ideal human form, Greek and Roman balanced and symmetrical human body, medievalist’s images of the body functioning as a confinement to the soul renaissance body 'modern body' What is a human body?

4. The historical review of the most prominent representations of the human body • In pre-modern societies, the body, both male and female, was an important site on which cultural and social values were inscribed through painting, scarification, piercing and tattooing. • These bodily markings carried a wide range of different meanings referring to social status, gender, identity, etc.

5. male or female • As soon as we are born, we are designated as male or female. This dualism has been reflected in different treatment of men and women, in cultural practices and in metaphorical projections. • women’sidentity= sinful, mortal, irrational body; • men’s identity = mind, immortality and reason.

6. Concepts that were considered masculine, such as light, straight, good, reason, mind, spirit, power, and the public sphere, • Concepts associated with femmininity: darkness, left, bad, irrationality, body, emotion, passivity, inferiority, and the private sphere. • Deeds are man, words are woman. • Long hair, short wit.

7. The mind /body dualism • The human body is universally perceived as a composite of thephysical body and the mind/soul. The body was conceived as a ‘prison of the soul’ and mind. This concept can be traced back in Plato, Aristotle and in the Christian tradition. • Plato: The body is the tomb of the soul. (Cratylus, XVII.). • W. Shakespeare: My heart, all mad with misery, Beats in this hollow prison of my flesh. (Titus Andronicus, Act 3.).

8. On the contrary, the Eastern perception of the body, as expressed in Taoism and Zen Buddhism, advocates the non-dualistic nature of the human body. This concept makes human being a union of body and mindworking together.

9. Renaissance body By the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century, more naturalistic images of the human body resulted from the growing interest in the human form > Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti. (perfection through harmonious proportion). Sound body, sound mind. Men is the measure of all things

10. universal/generic body • Until the end of the eighteenth century, the human body was mainly perceived as an ungendered,universal, generic body. • The male body/man was considered the norm, and female characteristics have been conceptualized on the basis of masculine parameters. e.g. All men are equal in the eyes of law. (man=all people, both male and female); the evolution of man, etc. • D. Spander (1980, p. 20) believes that in some areas ‘semantic space does not exist for women because it is occupied by the male sex’.

11. sexual differenecs • During the nineteenth century, a revolutionary reconceptualization of sexual difference emerged. The discourse on the body shifts from the man-made language to the neutral naming. • In the same time the linguistic landscape of the female body is changed, e.g. postal worker>post officer>postwoman.

12. The body in modern society In modern society, the form of the human body changes through practices such as bodybuilding, cross-dressing, cosmetic surgery, etc. There is also an emerging vocabulary referring to new identities: gay, lesbian, bisexual, heterosexual, etc. Virtual reality and its vocabulary disseminate the image of a new body: robots, android, cyborgs, cyber terrorists, computer nerds,netizens,etc. D. Haraway (1991) claims that the cyborg serves as a metaphorical projection of the disintegration of traditional boundaries.

13. New technologies have changed categories: birth mother, sperm donor, egg donor, etc. With the appearance of each new word, a new threshold is crossed in the perception and social construction of the human body. The conceptualization of the human body changes in visible ways with changes in societyand in sexual awareness.

14. There is quite an extensive expansion of the human-body domain which is used to describe new tecnical devices. Computers have memory,brains, intelligence, languages, viruses, keys, windows, architecture, etc. They are intelligent, smart; they can be infected by virus. Computers become human beings and human beings act like computers. This attitude sets the stage for an exceptionally powerful process of remapping and reimagining the boundaries of human bodies.

15. Body metaphorsMan is the measure of all things(proverb) • When the body is mentioned in literature, philosophy or similar disciplines, it is often conceptualized as a plant, an animal, a cage or confinement of the soul, a machine, a container of emotions, a computer, a communication network, etc. • Plato describes humankind as a ‘heavenly plant.’ (family tree, the root of the tooth...). Women are often perceived as fragile flowers. • The human body is often addressed as a metaphor for society (e.g. the head of the state, the face of the law,a legislative body, etc.)

16. the body parts have individual functions. They can become symbolic models of stable meanings in different parts of one’s experience, e.g. • head>the seat of the intellect; director, leader; a container of thoughts, ideas, memories. • heart >the seat of emotion (sadness, fear, and love) and the center of bravery • hand > power/control, e.g. to have someone in one’s hands

17. heart Metaphorically, it refers to a person’s character, or the place within a personwhere their feelings or emotions (sadness, surprise, fear,love…) areconsidered to come. It is also the center ofbravery/courage: • You are doing really well-don’t lose heart now. (=courage), • to break someone’s heart (=to cause emotional pain) • In some languages heart is considered as the centre of the soul (heart=soul), e.g.Croatian: On je prava dusa (= soul). > She is all heart.

18. Body parts have been widely used to conceptualize inanimate world. Accordingly, many languages use body parts terms to describe non-corporeal entities, e.g. • leg of a table, • arm of a chair • foot of the bed ---------------------- • head of the salad, • heart of the lettuce • ear (grain part of corn) • -------------------------- • shoulder of a hill • foot of the mountain • Finger Lakes • mouth of a river • Some physical units are derived from dimensions of the body: • a foot (= the length of an adult foot) • a yard (= a single stride) • Digital system is based on the Latin word DIGITUS=finger. • plants and animals are named after body parts: prstaci • body parts: eye teeth

19. Basic image schemata of the body • The view of the body as a physical object presupposes its 3-dimensional form (container, box) in space and time. A container schema has its structure: an inside, a boundary, and an outside. • This spatial conception of the body as physical object, generates many metaphors based on the form of the following image schemata: LEFT-RIGHt, IN-OUT, FRONT-BACK, UP-DOWN

20. Symmetry and balance The human body is perfectly symmetrical and balanced. It can be foldedover in the middle into left and right halves (vertical axis).Vitruvian man is a symbol of the ideal and symmetrical human body The experienceof balanced posture gives rise to followingmetaphors: balanced personalities,balanced views, the balance ofpower, justice, inner balance. balanced news, etc.

21. left-right Metaphors generated by LEFT-RIGHT experience of the body posturesupport the view that left is clumsy, awkward, insincere, e.g. lefthanded compliment. Metaphorically, rightmeans suitable, morally acceptable, correct, true, authentic, conservative, prominent side of an, object, e.g.to get off on the right foot, right conduct(=being in accordance with what is just, good,correct), upright (= honest and just)

22. Interior-exterior In the majority of metaphorical projections, the body functions as a container box. It consists of many entities: mind, soul, words, emotions, thoughts, etc. In proverbial speech, people reach their inner part through their eyes: Eyes are the window of the soul. The enterior of the body is percieved as physical environment and the exterior of the body as a field of cultural representations.

23. Up-down The posture we regard as typical of the human body is upright. Accordingly, activities viewed positively are expressed as up (= a higher value, an improvement). Metaphorically, if someone is downit means a weak, desperate position, e.g. Tim has been feeling down. Due to the backbone or spine, we can achieve upright position. Such an experience generates the view that the backbone is conceptualized as strength, bravery, e.g. They have been the backbone of the local golf club for years.

24. Front-back • The posture of the human body is such that its senses are dominantly directed forward (eyes, nose, and mouth). This experience generates the view that front part is equal to progress, dignity, knowledge, e.g. Seeing is believing. • In the back of one’s mind means the remote part of one’s brain where thoughts are stored and forgotten. - to stab someone in the back. (= to betray) - to have one’s back to the wall (= to be in defensive position) - behind one’s back (= without one’s knowledge, in secret)

25. European speakers project truths into the future, progress. In the same time some non-Western languages put the past in front and the future behind. So the past time is defined as eye year or front year. Obviously, their metaphorical projections are different and based on their own cultural values. Evidently, the structure of the human body does not necesserily produce universal metaphors.

26. CONCLUSION 1. Linguistic categorization of the body reveals that all human beings have a common set of conceptual metaphors (universal/generic level metaphors) that are based on the following: • common body structure • basic sensory experiences • common features of social organization and behaviour>common cultural environment • common features of the natural environment • Globalization

27. 2. specific metaphors The body and its individual parts are used in metaphorical projections as symbols of specific cultural and social values. Specific cultural and social environment Sensory experience? Not all information is registered: selective attention or economical perception> diversity/specific level metaphors Through the development of new technologies human environment has been radically modified. Accordingly, the human body has evolved to adapt to its environment. New metaphorical projections are introduced.