The sociology of the body has gained popularity since the late 1980s. Analytically, the sociology of the body has been split into two distinct, frequently at odds, schools of thought. Alternative responses to the issue, "Is the human body socially constructed?" are represented by these two traditions. The body is considered as a system of cultural representations in social constructionist theories. The "lived body" is investigated in the context of daily social interaction according to phenomenological tradition.
Studies of the body as a cultural representation of social life are common. In this sociological and anthropological tradition, study examines how the body functions as a symbol of political influence and how that influence is exerted over the body. This perspective on the body, which has been heavily influenced by Michel Foucault's legacy, is concerned with issues of representation and control, with nutrition serving as one such example. The Foucauldian perspective does not seek to grasp the lived experience of the body from a phenomenology of the body; it is not concerned with comprehending our experiences of embodiment.
There is a tradition in sociology and anthropology that looks at the body as a symbolic system; but, we may also look at how people become embodied and how they pick up various cultural practices that are required for walking, sitting, dancing, and other activities. Anthropologists who have been affected by the idea of "body methods" have a special interest in the study of embodyment (Mauss 1973). By organizing human preferences and likes according to the concepts of hexis and habitus, Pierre Bourdieu has further expanded these anthropological presumptions.
Feminist social theory has also consistently influenced modern anthropology and sociology of the body. The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, published in 1972, made a significant addition to the understanding of patriarchal control over the female body. Social constructionism has been used by feminist theories of the body to demonstrate how the distinctions between male and female bodies differences we take for granted as though they were universal truths are socially created.
Thank you for reading my post...