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- Convenors:
-
Reda Šatūnienė
(Lithuanian University of Health Sciences)
Anna Zadrożna (Institute of Anthropology, University of Gdańsk)
Ieva Paberzyte (McGill University)
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- Formats:
- Panels
- Sessions:
- Friday 24 July, -
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
Short Abstract:
This panel addresses corporeal and/or spiritual practices, perspectives, traditions and inventions that challenge and/or expand human limits and abilities in search for a "better human" and well-being, as well as their outcomes, legal/ethical aspects, and channels of popularization.
Long Abstract:
Current, highly competitive human existence (overworking, precarity, acceleration) impacts both mind and body causing fatigue, anxiety, frustration, pain and exhaustion, or even chronic illnesses. In this context, human body has become a space of constant struggle: we witness series of individual and collective actions, targeted towards re-shaping, re-generating, and re-understanding human body and mind, both reflected in new ideologies, emerging lifestyles, and life-strategies. Practices challenging human abilities and/or expanding human limits manifest strongly as corporeal and/or spiritual: ultra-marathons, trail runnings, eclectic forms of body-mind training, breathing techniques, mindfulness, or use of entheogens are just examples of what can be seen as "biohacking", indicating self-directed DIY experiments in search for a "better human". In addition to/instead of medical consultations and interventions, Internet, popular media and social networks become the source of "know-how" regarding the use of drugs/medicaments, dieting, sports and human psychology and well-being.
We invite papers that explore:
Historical perspectives on athletics, fitness, well-being;
Contemporary self-directed body/mind practices that lead to crossing/challenging one's limits;
The quest for a "better human"; alternative understandings of body/mind, attempts to re-invent and re-think a human being;
Inventions and traditions in/beyond Europe; marginal lifestyles, subcultures, movements; body/mind practices on the peripheries;
The role of Internet, popular media and social networks in popularizing body/mind practices;
Self-directed DIY experiments with body/mind; sources of knowledge, outcomes, the questions of credibility, authority and trust;
Legal and ethical questions and issues regarding body/mind, health and well-being.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 24 July, 2020, -Paper short abstract:
Could the idea of natural childbirth childbirth form a kind of technology, the goal of which is a radical transformation of a human being? I describe the history of a utopian project that originated in the USSR in the 1970s-1980s, its current transformations, and their futuristic implications.
Paper long abstract:
At the center of my research is a utopian project that originated in the Soviet Union in the 1970s and reached the peak of its popularity in the 1980s. The aim of the method developed by Igor Charkovsky was the creation of "a new human being" possessing supernormal abilities - a sensitive or a baby dolphin. The method includes intensive training of pregnant woman (swimming, diving, cold strengthening and gymnastics), giving birth in water (ideally, in the ocean); the baby and the placenta staying underwater; baby yoga immediately after the cutting of the umbilical cord; the parents helping the baby to swim and dive 8-9 hours a day from the first day of life; the baby breastfeeding, sleeping, and playing in the water; cold strengthening via ice hole dipping; and physical contact and metaphysical connection with dolphins, which are considered representatives of some other civilization.
The idea of creating a super-human by the use of different natural perinatal technologies serves as a source of inspiration in Russian New Age groups, in particular the "Anastasia" movement.
I describe the history of Charkovky's movement, its current transformations, and their futuristic implications. I refer to the concepts of biopolitics and of counter-conduct as a specific "revolt of conduct" (M. Foucault, M. Dean) to describe the causes and nature of the movement. In effect, this movement constitutes a protest, a way to get rid of a controlling and overseeing state by transforming (strengthening) the body and mind.
Paper short abstract:
This paper focuses on the transformative effect of "ritual whirling" (Sema) and examines the idea of becoming a better human and paths leading to it.
Paper long abstract:
This paper focuses on the transformative effect of Sema, a Mevlevi Sufi ritual often referred to as a "whirling" or a "ritual dance". I explore embodiment as a way of learning about/communicating with oneself/Higher Self/God/other entities, and searching for healing, wisdom, guidance or truth. As I participated in Sema privately, I also approached some of its aspects as anthropologist (with a clear intention of conducting research).
In the context of my research, the sema has a broader meaning and concerns other activities organized around Sema (whirling), including: sohbet (conversations), zikir (chanting), cooking and cleaning together, and socializing around the event. Instead of being a "religious performance", it is regarded as a space for healing, learning and transformation that come from the character of the place, the ritual and other activities, and universality of human nature. I reflect on the Sema as a space in terms of its affectivity, materiality, and semiotics, and I look deeper into the ways in which embodiment and bodily experience become integral to the transformative effect of the Sema. Focusing of the idea of becoming a better human, I ask the following questions: what does it mean in this particular context? What values are regarded "better", why, and what paths lead to acquiring them?
Paper short abstract:
Paper explores ideas and understandings of 'evolution' in the context of non-conventional healing in Lithuania via insiders' perspective. It analyzes representations, meanings and interpretations of 'the process of 'human evolution' as a part of a larger worldview / life-philosophy.
Paper long abstract:
Since the beginning of my research (and general interest, which started much earlier than formal research) on representations of contemporary non-conventional healing practices (such as breathing techniques, particular body/mind practices), as well as witnessing growing popularity of wellness oriented lifestyles, a number of interpretations and meanings of what could possibly be the cause, were pondered. One of the main lines of interpretation was the one about a need / tendency of a constant development of a human in concordance with social change.
After conducting twenty-five semi-structured in-depth interviews with non-conventional healing upholders, a corresponding number of participant observations of healing practices, an idea (belief?) of an 'evolution' in sense of 'becoming a better human' generated vividly. This notion catalyzed for more detailed study on what is exactly meant by the term 'evolution' within the frames of gathered data: how, under what circumstances / contexts it is constructed? What are the meanings of this concept, according research participants? How the idea of 'evolution' is combined within a larger picture of 'healing / wellness strategies', and / or 'becoming a better human'?
The aim of the presentation is to expose variety of understandings, and interpretations of 'evolution' within a field of non-conventional healing practices as a form of wellness lifestyle (and philosophy), and simultaneously to draw patterns of the discourse of change ('evolution') / 'becoming a better human' evolving in specific (sub)cultural formation(s). Representations of 'evolution' will be analyzed in both 'inner' (mind, spirit) and 'outer' (body; external environment) universe.
Paper short abstract:
This paper describes how Ethiopian runners navigate what they perceive as an 'economy of limited energy.' This intensified the tension between individual and relational agency and the temptation to expand energetic potentials by illicit means. This paper describes the energetic ethics that results.
Paper long abstract:
Concerns about energy - its use and misuse, the way it shifts between states, its extraction or enhancement - is the central preoccupation of professional Ethiopian runners. As runners train together but compete as individuals, a clear tension emerges between relational and individual agency. The high level of risk and uncertainty that characterizes a career as a professional runner entails relationships of trust and mutual dependency and demands intensely intersubjective forms of moral labour to maintain. In the setting of the training group, the necessity of proximity and of sharing energy involves the articulation of trust and distrust, with the feeling that runners are 'on the edge' of what is possible serving to intensify the relationship between intimacy and suspicion identified by Geschiere (2013). With this in mind I describe what morally appropriate training sociality looks like for Ethiopian runners navigating limits, characterised by the sharing of food and pace-making responsibilities and by the synchronicity and visibility of training practices. I move on to explore illicit means of gaining an energetic advantage over others: metat, a form of witchcraft allowing runners to take some of the energy of their competitors through the mediation of a witchdoctor; the use of performance-enhancing drugs imported from abroad; and training in secret during the night. These are instances in which becoming a better runner clash with attempts to become a "better human." I argue for the importance of the study of 'energetic subjectivities' and energy ethics at the level of the human body.