NATURAL TO DISTINCTIVE BODIES

Pierre Bourdieu's “Natural Body is transformed into a “Distinctive Body”

Pierre Bourdieu's “Natural Body” is transformed into a “Distinctive Body”

Introduction

This essay tends to discuss and evaluate Pierre Bourdieu's statement: “natural body is transformed into a distinctive body” (Bourdieu, 1990, pp. 190) in the light of references to other examples including the famous Chris Shilling's observations on similar theme. The essay will primarily elaborate upon Pierre's claim in detail while also comparing the claim with that of other famous writers' thoughts.

Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) was a French sociologist who fundamentally investigated the role of practice in the power relations of social life, initially attempting to investigate the field, habitus and symbolic violence in order to define the dynamics of social life power relations. It was his claim in the context of transformation of natural bodies into a distinctive body that lead to many controversies and speculations. One of the researchers, who attempted to challenge and rather speculate Pierre's claim in an even defined manner, is Chris Shilling. Chris Shilling was a sociology professor at the University of Kent's School of Social Policy who is popular for his redefinition of the parameters that relate to the human body's sociology. He worked upon pragmatism and social research of the Chicago school and came up with useful analyses regarding human habits and his/her character.

Discussion

According to Pierre's claim, “a natural body is transformed into a distinctive body” (Bourdieu, 1990, pp. 190). There is a certain sample of people who go beyond treating their bodies “biologically” in order to make profits and use their “natural” bodies as a “thing”. This is mainly done through projecting the naturally-gifted bodies as a distinctive body. In such a situation, a person goes beyond treating the body as his own self and makes it a “thing” to be socially projected for the mere attainment of material riches. In this state, human body works as a machine, that needs servicing and tuning time to time, in an attempt to work efficiently (Boudieu, 1985, pp. 741-742).

Pierre's claim contradicts with the natural attributes of the human body, since if it works as a machine, then human body can no longer remain “natural”. It must undergo man-made, worldly processes and treatments to nurture itself for worldly gains rather than keeping it as it was, naturally. In this state, the body becomes a socially-constructed product, which is no longer restrictive to the self. It becomes a body “for others”. This “product” is projected by the person as his own manifestation of the ideas that he wants to project through its own self, values, capabilities and character (Boudieu, 1985, pp. 725-731).

Pierre further defined the characteristics in which the human manifestation of his own “self” takes place. According to Bourdieu, the projection of human body as a “product” is influenced and impacted by the person's taste, his social field and the “habitus”. Taste, as per Bourdieu, is everything the body either ingests or digests and eventually assimilates; both in psychological and physiological terms ...