The Mindful Body: A Prolegomenon to Future Work in Medical Anthropology (original) (raw)

The paper explores the regulation and control of individual and social bodies within various societal frameworks, particularly contrasting preindustrial societies with complex, industrialized ones. It discusses the theoretical frameworks of phenomenology, structuralism, and post-structuralism to analyze how health and illness are culturally constructed. The implications of medicalization on societal dynamics, individual identity, and the transformation of sickness into a manageable social narrative are examined, highlighting how these processes reflect broader issues such as social unrest and the management of individual bodies in service of the body politic.