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Perceiving the Social Body
Author(s) -
Aulino Felicity
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of religious ethics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.306
H-Index - 20
eISSN - 1467-9795
pISSN - 0384-9694
DOI - 10.1111/jore.12064
Subject(s) - embodied cognition , normative , sociology , social psychology , action (physics) , trace (psycholinguistics) , social group , social representation , power (physics) , ethnography , epistemology , psychology , philosophy , linguistics , physics , quantum mechanics , anthropology
This essay develops the concept of the “social body” as a metaphorical representation of hierarchical relationships in T hailand, as well as the physical embodiment of social, religious, and political structures. To do so, I trace the symbolic coordinates of groups that correspond to conceptions of individual bodies, along with the habituated means of perceiving as part of a collective. I argue that conventional T hai social interactions involve active attention to and care of the “social body,” in which differential roles are necessary for group functioning. Ethnographic descriptions of social interactions in public and semi‐private arenas depict the spontaneous and embodied root of moral action in these contexts. The values thus enacted, however, challenge normative ideals of distributive justice and open up questions about “care” for a social body that validates unequal power and resource distribution.