Rafael F. Narváez – författare

The human body is not a given fact; it is not, as Descartes believed, a “machine made up of flesh and bones.” The body is acquired, achieved, and learned. It is thus full of mimetic and mnemonic implications. The body remembers, and it does so in collectively relevant ways. Gestures, corporeal and phonetic rhythms, affective idioms, and emotional styles — perceptual, sensorial, motoric, and affective schemata — are all largely learned in shared social contexts. These aspects of the embodied experience are often consigned to habit, to bodily automatisms, and to corporeal memories that reflect aspects of culture. But if the body reflects certain aspects of culture that press to become naturalized and organically attached to social actors, it also resists these kinds of cultural pressures. These adaptive and resistive dynamics, as this book shows, are not without consequences for individuals and groups. These processes can result in both advantages and disadvantages for social actors. They can take us toward certain futures while foreclosing others. It is therefore necessary to understand how, why, and to what extent corporeal memories are constructed but also resisted, modified, or created anew.

The human body is not a given fact; it is not, as Descartes believed, a “machine made up of flesh and bones.” The body is acquired, achieved, and learned. It is thus full of mimetic and mnemonic implications. The body remembers, and it does so in collectively relevant ways. Gestures, corporeal and phonetic rhythms, affective idioms, and emotional styles — perceptual, sensorial, motoric, and affective schemata — are all largely learned in shared social contexts. These aspects of the embodied experience are often consigned to habit, to bodily automatisms, and to corporeal memories that reflect aspects of culture. But if the body reflects certain aspects of culture that press to become naturalized and organically attached to social actors, it also resists these kinds of cultural pressures. These adaptive and resistive dynamics, as this book shows, are not without consequences for individuals and groups. These processes can result in both advantages and disadvantages for social actors. They can take us toward certain futures while foreclosing others. It is therefore necessary to understand how, why, and to what extent corporeal memories are constructed but also resisted, modified, or created anew.

Reading the World: An Introduction to Sociological Critique and Analysis helps students see that the normal, familiar aspects of their everyday life frequently have unexpected and even startling dimensions. Students learn to uncover layers of meaning that are hard to spontaneously perceive in things, behaviors, and events in the world around them.The book helps readers understand how and why the familiar can be deceptive. It shows that the sciences, sociology included, help us see things otherwise blurred by our own habits of thought, obscured by unexamined mental routines that limit what we can perceive, think, and imagine. The book thus helps students open a window into the world and into their own mental routines. It invites them to explore the life of the curious and of the free, the proper life for a citizen of a republic.The text also helps students understand how individuals and societies develop a sense of curiosity about the way the world works, and a related readiness for the new, the unexpected, and the strange. It shows that this kind of reflective attitude has changed history, liberated us from our own unexamined perceptions, and bettered the human experience.All chapters have been updated and expanded; a new discussion about the nature and role of new media has been added. Whereas the 2nd edition featured 13 chapters, the 3rd edition features 15.Reading the World is designed for undergraduate courses in the social sciences, including sociology, social psychology, and social theory. It draws from sources in six languages other than English, which are mostly unavailable in English translation.