Body, Self, and Society : : The View from Fiji / / Anne E. Becker.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Penn Press eBook Package Complete Collection
• VerfasserIn: Becker, Anne E.,
• Place / Publishing House: Philadelphia : : University of Pennsylvania Press, , [2013]; ©1996
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (224 p.) :; 33 illus.

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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Figures -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Cultural Bearings: Identity and Ethos in Fiji -- Chapter 2. Body Imagery, Ideals, and Cultivation: Discourses on Alienation and Integration -- Chapter 3. Nurturing and Food Exchange: An Ethos of Care -- Chapter 4. Disclosure and Exposure: The Body and Its Secrets Revealed -- Chapter 5. The Body as a Community Forum: Spirit Possession and Social Repossession -- Chapter 6. Cultural Metaphors: Body and Self -- Epilogue: On Being Gwalili in the West -- Appendix A: Glossary and Language Notes -- Appendix B: Research Methods -- Appendix C: Graphic Representations of the Data -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index