Body, Self, and Society

Download or read book Body, Self, and Society written by Anne E. Becker and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2013-11-25 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anne E. Becker examines the cultural context of the embodied self through her ethnography of bodily aesthetics, food exchange, care, and social relationships in Fiji. She contrasts the cultivation of the body/self in Fijian and American society, arguing that the motivation of Americans to work on their bodies' shapes as a personal endeavor is permitted by their notion that the self is individuated and autonomous. On the other hand, because Fijians concern themselves with the cultivation of social relationships largely expressed through nurturing and food exchange, there is a vested interest in cultivating others' bodies rather than one's own.