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Summary Barker & Jane Chapter 4
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Chapter 4 of Barker & Jane's Cultural Studies: Theory & Practice
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Barker & Jane Chapter 4: Biology, The Body And Culturecentral conflict: nature vs. nurture
Physiological explanations of culture are viewed as biological reductionism. There is an emphasis
on cultural constructionism. Culture and biology have an alliance, not a clear distinction.
Deconstructing the nature/culture opposition to remove biological reductionism
Daniel Dennett (1995) distinguishes two types of reductionism
greedy reductionism: reducing human behavior to genes
good reductionism: using causal chains to explain human behavior. Genes are part of the chain.
phenotypes: manifestation of an organism. Change in environment or genetics change
phenotypes. (Sternley, Griffith 1999)
culture and biology are indivisible.
holism vs. individualism
physical science isn’t objective truth. It is a cultural classification consisting of conceptual tools.
Science cannot be founded on representationalism. It is a socially agreed procedure for particular
purposes and circumstances.
Language is a tool for purposes
Example: wave-particle duality
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)
linguistic anti-essentialism, holism, influence on constructionism
reason-giving, which is a social practice of justification, rather than truth-seeking.
Bryan Turner (1996) The Cultured Body (examples on page 133 of your textbook)
describes a somatic society. “Political and personal problems are problematized within the body
and expressed through it.” The body isn’t fixed.
Foucault (1977) governmentality and discipline produce ‘docile bodies.’
This theory lacks agency: bodies work as the passive consequence of interdisciplinary power.
(1986) Foucault enabling ‘ideas of the self’
Goffman: the body works as the active project of identity construction. Sees the body as a set of
cultural signs as well as a material entity.
The medical body
Paradox of agency and discipline
Medicine produces ‘biological’ normality. Is this biological reductionism?
Bio-psychosocial medicine provides a more holistic approach. It is less disciplined and more active.
Health becomes an ethic which enforces new discipline. Discipline and agency constitute objects.
genetic engineering is the manipulation of genotype to influence phenotype > eugenics
Ethics: Will a GenRich class develop?
Will there be separate species (Silverman, 1998)
Cultural attitude of control (Sandel, 2007) life shouldn’t be flawless.
Post-human issues
Human/non-human binary, symbiotic hierarchy of species, science worshipped as a God
cognitive enhancements: electrodes, smart drugs, therapy. Are psychiatric drugs enhancers?
Where is the limit of human capability? How does wealth figure into this?
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