The Individual, Social, and Political Body?

Question

I am writing a paper about the Individual, Social, and Political body for my Medical Anthropology class. I read a few journal articles about the bodies, but still isn't clear. Could someone please explain these three bodies in a simple way?

Answer 1

If you haven't read Scheper-Hughes and Lock yet, that's your next assignment.  Since you probably have, I'll try to make it really simple.

Individual: Your understanding of your body - ex: Geertz wrote that the Western concept of the self is bounded and parceled.  Spirits do not enter the body and the human senses to do leave the body.

Social: The body is a symbol or map with which people shape or understand their environment - ex: Indian caste system understood through associations between Brahmans and the head, Kshatriya and the arms, etc. down to Untouchables which this man made of the castes stands on.

Political: aka the Body Politic - control or definition of the body by society - ex: different ideals of beauty or health among the working class as opposed to the upper class