UNIVERSITY OF KENT

CONTEMPORARY
CULTURE
COURSEWORK
4/4/2012
STUDENT: VAN HIEU NGUYEN
SEMINAR LEADER: KAMILLA PAWLIKOWSKA

TOPIC: The human body is essentially cultural

rather than natural. Discuss with reference to
contemporary technological and medical advances.

The human body is an organization which is always on the highest level of complexity. More
than 20,000 years from the dawn of the modern humanity, we are yet on the last step of the
evolution. However, the changes take place not because of the adaptation, but because of
culture. Culture is a product of evolution, undoubtedly, as humans knowledge creates culture.
The evolution in terms of the present time is not the adjustments to the changes of the
environment; nowadays, one makes the changes to look normal to join the society. The fact that
it is more and more easy to modify the body is the reason to argue that the body is essentially
cultural rather than natural. Do people concern more about how their appearance or it is the
standard of the society has been raised that body modification must be met to be ordinary, to be
normal when walking down the street? This essay will look at how the cultural body has
changed in time, from naturally constructed to culturally affected and attempt to verify the
cultural inclination of postmodern human.

Firstly, the creation of culture came when human started to have the cognition of its own
existence and the world. The diversity of the language is one thing contributes to the complexity
of culture. Based on the different of the natural construction, language is not the same around
the world from the beginning of modern spoken language. Even the different dialects in one
language show a part of the sophistication of culture. Costumes of different ethnics are also the
expression of the significant variance of culture. Communicating and dressing (or in the case of
consumer culture, fashion) create a basic protocol for everyone to follow; also are two distinctive
features that distinguish Homo sapiens from other species. People care about how to talk to
others, care about how they look and the appearance plays a big role in the everyday life as
well as communication.

Secondly, the uses of the natural body used to be merely for the need of existence. From the
ancient time when like any other species, human had to survive and reproduce. When the brain
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size increased and humans knowledge had developed to a higher level, the natural body is
given higher abilities as well as authorities. The creation of civilisation was a milestone in the
development of human body. It showed that the cognition of the abilities and authorities had
been upgraded, human found itself in possession of power. The medieval age was a transition
of the notions of surviving, hunting and killing to ruling and obeying. The dominant of the
feudalism gave the dominant class, the king in this case, the highest possible power. The use of
the body is not solely surviving, it is also used to express the power. As said above, the
medieval time was still literally cruel, for those who are affected by the king of course. Death
penalties were imposed easily it was showed that the body could express power not only by
fighting but also by giving commands. Power is an abstract concept which in this case is not
related to masculinity but refers to authority, the ability to do anything as desire was an
embodiment of absolute power. The higher class had the power on the lower ones, though
sounds sociological and political but the notion of the lower class exploitation was cultural. It
was originally from the desire for a good life, without having to work hard and possess large
amount of property, people developed a want of taking control of others. Because humans are
carnivore, the tendency to seek violence and slaughtering is one of the original habits and so it
can be said that the natural origin shaped the cultural evolution in various ways.
Also, the social standards were raised in the Middle Age, for instance eating with appropriate
equipment instead of bare hands was a must or the improvement of hygienic habits 1. People
showed the courtesy of putting on not only clothes but beautiful, high quality clothes to indicate
their social level (e.g.: a high-class person should look better than a farmer, etc.), hence created
the concept of fashion. Clothing has three basic principles: utility, hierarchy and attraction 2.
Those are fundamental purposes of clothing which can be seen easily for example different
clothes are for different types of activities, hence the utility. More beautiful and pricy costumes
indicate the social level which is also the hierarchy. Attraction occurs as people put on appealing
clothes to get the eyes of the opposite sex. However, fashion itself is paradoxical, as it is a part
1

Longhurst, et al, p.284-285

Longhurst, et al, p.290

of culture. If the three fundamental principles of fashion was quite vague the pre-Middle Age,
fashion becomes more significant in the modern time. Clothing styles distinguish sex, age,
social level and even characters. Referring to Foucaults famous theory, fashion is a medium for
discourse to have effects on people. Although discourse does bend people into many types of
different social reaction, it is also the reason for the existence of subculture. Tattooing and
piercing are considered fashion, using which people can express the want to be different,
emerge from the popular culture without relying on clothes. It is also an argument of Foucault,
that the body can at the same time express the resistance to the dominant ideology, in this
case, the popular culture.

Popular culture can be seen as the dominant ideology because in which people behave the
same and have similar attitude toward the one thing or another. The concept of consumer
culture is elevated as a social movement, a drive for economic development, a moral doctrine
and a means for demarcating social status3. People are always affected by the surrounding;
they follow the social movement and by that become a part of the society. Those who do not
follow the trend or are not entirely dominated by the social convention seek ways to be different.
In some way, culture has effect on subculture and vice versa. The base of subculture is culture
and people do find the alternative more interesting than the regular. Take female as an example
for this. Female on the anatomical scale is associated with femininity or in other words, the
weaker sex. Despite the lack of physical advantages against male, female uses the body as a
tool to attract and dominate male. Body modification is used when the body construction is lack
of desired properties. Plastic surgery for example, is used by women in order to have the
attention of men and be more competitive when finding male companions against other women.
Because of the effect from the surrounding, women have the incentive to change the natural
body, it is not entirely the nature of human to want a change on the body, it is the sudden

Consumer Culture, http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6480/ConsumerCulture.html

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reaction when a more attractive body is seen, one will develop an incentive to change based on
the unusual low self-esteem. Body is natural but beauty, sexuality, attractiveness are
determined by culture as they are paradoxical. Eyelids surgery, body fat removal as well as
using Botox are also methods to gain the desired attractiveness though do not guarantee safety
and do affect biological stability occasionally.

Body modification and enhancement are more and more popular as the improvement of
technology, surgeries are easier to operate and safer. Modern humans are becoming post
humans. A natural body with an artificial attachment to improve abilities cannot be considered as
fully natural. In some sense, a man with a pair of glassed may be natural but with contact lens,
he can be called a cyborg. Prosthesis is a form of cyborg limb. In other words, cyborgs are
natural body with artificial implant or attachment to improve the original abilities. Stelarc is an
example of cyborg. His works on extending abilities are tremendously astounding though still in
constrain of technology. The idea of implanting an ear into one arm and that ear acts as a fully
functional ear opens a new perspective not only for art but also for medical, to find a way to help
deaf people to hear again using an alternative ear. Though plausible, the transition of human
into cyborg or post human is raises a big question: Should the society accept cyborgs as normal
humans, or should be treated differently due to the different of bio body? Also the body
modifying may cause problems when it comes to identities and security. Although there are still
implicit challenges in the transition to post human, it is still a credible idea of creating a hybridity
of human and technology according to Donna Haraway. That way, technologys potential can be
extended and so will the humans abilities 4. The problem is to make it become a part of the
popular culture.

N. Bostrom, p.25

All men are created equal.-Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), there is no big different between
human and cyborg, as long as the foundation is human. Because the body is more in the
culture, as culture is created and inherited by studying, it is not difficult to populate the notions of
cyborgism. However, as long as there is no enormous technological revolution in human
enhancement just yet, the natural bodies are still yet to be itself and changing the cultural
perspective on posthuman transition and cyborg remains a dilemma.

Word count: 1563

Bibliography:
B. Longhurst, et al, (2008), Introducing Cultural Studies, Pearson.
Consumer Culture, http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6480/Consumer-Culture.html
History of Language, http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?
historyid=ab13
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M. Featherstone, M. Hepworth & B. Turner, (1991), The Body: Social Process and Cultural
Theory, Sage.
N. Bostrom, (2005), A HISTORY OF TRANSHUMANIST THOUGHT,
http://www.nickbostrom.com/papers/history.pdf, Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford University.
Performer gets third ear for art, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7039821.stm
S. Nettleton & J. Watson, (1998), The Body in Everyday Life, Routledge.
Stelarc, Ear on Arm, http://stelarc.org/?catID=20242
The Dynamic Culture of the Middle Ages, http://historyworld.org/dynamic_culture_of_medieval_euro.htm
The Origin of Culture, http://serpentfd.org/humanevolution.html