Notes on "the Techniques of the Body" among West African peoples
Notes on "the Techniques of the Body" among West African peoples
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西非人民的“身体技术”笔记
DOI：
10.1537/ase1911.99.377
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发表时间：
1991
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
J. Kawada
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
J. Kawada
du corps），正如法国社会学家马塞尔·莫斯（Marcel MAUSS，1950 [1936]）所定义的那样，指的是社会成员之间共同实践的人体用途。它们不仅由身体和生理条件决定，而且在很大程度上由生态和文化因素决定，并且因社会而异（KAWADA，1988a，有关于该主题的完整参考书目）。其中许多，特别是在前工业社会中，具有确保特定技术条件下手工艺品和劳动效率的基本功能（KAWADA，1990，针对西非农业和陶器制作的案例研究）。作为“运动习惯”，身体的技术甚至影响一个社会的艺术和工艺风格（BOAS，1927）。在这些技术中，有些技术更受物理因素或其虚拟目的的限制，例如，用于排泄或性交的技术（即使在这些情况下，文化因素也同样可以忽略不计），而另一些技术则更不受这些限制，并且对不同的文化选择持开放态度，例如在问候或跳舞时使用身体。但即使在身体和物质限制以及功利主义效率似乎占主导地位的领域，例如耕地、搬运货物或婴儿、洗衣服、塑造陶器或休息时，我们也可以观察到人体使用的相当多的变化。例如，妇女洗衣服的传统姿势：在日本是蹲着的，在欧洲是跪着的，在西非是深弯上半身的站姿。这种多样性可能源于特定社会中发现的生态和文化因素，但准确确定哪些因素重要以及重要程度如何是一个尚未研究的难题。笔者自1963年以来，在西非黑人中进行了长达八年多的文化人类学田野调查，发现在身体技术上有以下共同特点。 （另见 KAWADA，1988C） (1) 站立姿势，上半身深深向前弯曲，双腿伸直或膝盖处稍微弯曲。这种姿势男女皆可使用，特别是在用短柄锄头进行的各种耕作活动（播种、除草、装泥等）（图1）、某些手工艺（图2）、洗衣、用很短的扫帚扫地以及其他日常家务活动中（图3）。这种姿势在外观上具有以下特征：（a）发生深度弯曲
du corps), as they were defined by the French sociologist Marcel MAUSS (1950 [1936]), designate the uses of the human body practised in common among the members of a society. They are determined not only by physical and physiological conditions, but also largely by ecological and cultural factors, and are different from society to society (KAWADA, 1988a, with full bibliography on this subject). Many of them, especially in pre-industrial societies, have fundamental functions to assure the efficiency of handiworks and labor in a given technological condition (KAWADA,1990, for the case study of farming and pottery making in West Africa). As "motor habits", the techniques of the body even influence the style of art and craft of a society (BOAS, 1927). Among these techniques, some are more strongly delimited by physical factors or by their virtual purposes, for example, those used in excretion or in coitus (even in these cases cultural factors are no less negligible), while others are more free from these constraints and open to variable cultural choices, such as the use of the body in greeting or in dancing. But even in the domains where the physical and material constraints and utilitarian efficiency seem to prevail, such as tilling the soil, carrying a load or a baby, washing clothes, shaping earthenware, or in taking a rest, we can observe quite a large variety in the use of the human body. For example, the traditional posture of women in washing clothes: squatting in Japan, kneeling down in Europe, and bending the upper body deeply in a standing posture in West Africa. The variety may derive from ecological and cultural factors found in a given society, but establishing exactly which factors are important and to what extent is a difficult subject that has not yet been studied. Among the Negroid people of West Africa., where the author has carried out field research in cultural anthropology for over eight years in total since 1963, the author has realized that the following characteristics in the techniques of the body are shared in common. (See also KAWADA, 1988C) (1) Standing posture with the upper body deeply bent forward, legs being extended straight or slightly flexed at the knee. This posture is used by both men and women, especially in various farming activities with a short-handled hoe (sowing, weeding, mud-mounting, etc.) (Fig. 1), in some craftwork (Fig. 2), in washing clothes, in sweeping the ground with a very short broom, and in other daily domestic activities (Fig. 3). This posture is characterized in appearance by the following traits: (a) the deep flection occurs