title: [Representation in life sciences (6). Cultural images of the body: Organism and flesh].
abstract: In the social and historical plan, the « body » is not still a datum of evidence. This formulation with a dualist connotation does not appear in all the human societies, certain do not distinguish the man from his flesh. The body is rather a question than an answer, a misleading evidence which reveals a multitude of different representations which assign to it a position determined within the general symbolism of the society, dependent on a social status, on a vision of the world, and inside this last one on a definition of the person. The body is a changeable reality from a society to an other one : the images which define it, the systems of knowledge which clarify its nature, the accomplished performances are strickingly diverse, contradictory. The body is a symbolic construction. It seems to be obvious, but nothing is more imperceptible.
authors: Professeur de sociologie à l'Université de Strasbourg, Membre de l'Institut universitaire de France, faculté des sciences sociales, 22, rue René Descartes, 67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France. dav.le.breton@orange.fr
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Le Breton
mesh_terms: D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D018594:Human Body; D006801:Humans