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African Studies Keyword: Body

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2021

Julie Livingston Open the ORCID record for Julie Livingston [Opens in a new window]
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Abstract

The human body is a central entity and analytic within African life and Africanist scholarship. The source of perception and the seat of animation, of life, it grounds experience of the world while also providing a rich set of symbols from which humans draw in political, social, and religious life to create and communicate meaning. Livingston reviews approaches to the body as a key concept in Africanist scholarship, tracing regimes of bodily representation ranging from the deployment of bodily symbolism in ancient smelting furnaces to the hypervisibility of the black female body in the European colonial imagination. She discusses a welter of bodily experience, from the pain of childbirth and the vulnerabilities of illness and accident to the sensorium or the kinesthetic power of movement and dance. In the process, Livingston considers developments within the field of African Studies via the body.

Résumé

Résumé

Le corps humain est une entité centrale et analytique au sein de la vie africaine et de la recherche africaniste. Source de perception et siège du mouvement, de la vie, il fonde l’expérience du monde tout en fournissant un riche ensemble de symboles dont les êtres humains s’inspirent dans la vie politique, sociale et religieuse pour créer et communiquer un sens. Livingston passe en revue les approches du corps en tant que concept clé de la recherche africaniste, retraçant les processus de représentation corporelle allant du déploiement du symbolisme corporel dans d’anciens fours de fusion à la visibilité accrue du corps féminin noir dans l’imaginaire colonial européen. Elle aborde un large éventail d’expériences corporelles allant de la douleur durant l’accouchement à la vulnérabilité de la maladie, à l’accident sensoriel ou à la puissance kinesthésique du mouvement et de la danse. Ce faisant, Livingston examine les développements des études africaines par le biais du corps.

Resumo

Resumo

O corpo humano é uma entidade central e analítica na vida africana e entre a academia dos Estudos Africanos. Fonte da perceção e centro de animação, de vida, o corpo humano é a base através da qual se experiencia o mundo, ao mesmo tempo que oferece um conjunto variado e rico de símbolos a que as pessoas recorrem na sua vida política, social e religiosa para criar e comunicar significados. Livingston percorre as várias abordagens do corpo enquanto conceito fundamental para a academia dos Estudos Africanos, identificando modos de representação do corpo que vão desde o uso do simbolismo corporal em antigos fornos de fundição até à hipervisibilidade do corpo da mulher negra na imaginação colonial dos europeus. A autora analisa um conjunto multiforme de experiências relacionadas com o corpo, desde as dores de parto e a propensão para as doenças e os acidentes até ao potencial sensorial e cinestésico do movimento e da dança. De caminho, Livingston avalia ainda os desenvolvimentos que se têm verificado no domínio dos Estudos Africanos através do corpo.

Keywords

bodyAfricasexembodimentrepresentationexperiencecarecorpsehistoriographyconsciousness
Type
Other
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 64 , Issue 1 , March 2021 , pp. 129 - 143
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the African Studies Association

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