20 MARK Q3. - Examine the ways in which the body is a symbol of culture.

Body is a product of social and cultural world; it is a social construction - ideas towards body develop over time. The body represents the culture of an individual.

Herts - handedness:

• preference over one hand than the other
• often the right hand is symbolised with purity and the left hand is symbolised with dirt.
• in india for example, people do unpleasant things with their left hand and shake hands and eat food with their right hand.

Mauss - techniques of the body:

• body is trained within a culture.
• concept of 'habitus'

Support;

• Bateson agrues that children's body positions are socially constructed
• balinese - children are not allowed to crawl.

Bourdieu - habitus:

• depends on human history & memory;
• exists beyond original reason for doingit

Turner  - social skin:

• kayapo in amazon, body adornment is cultural way to show social identity among other things,.

E.g:

• MS13 gang in la use tattoos to show where and who they belong to.
• tattoos in the western world are an example of social skin.