Embodied ethnicity: the ethnic affiliation grounded in the body

Author: Dion Delphine   Sitz Lionel   Rémy Eric  

Publisher: Routledge Ltd

ISSN: 1025-3866

Source: Consumption, Markets and Culture, Vol.14, Iss.3, 2011-09, pp. : 311-331

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Abstract

Drawing on cultural phenomenology, this paper extends the literature on ethnicity by investigating its embodied dimensions and by studying infra-national referents (e.g., regionalism in France). Findings show the central role of embodiment in ethnicity. Three dimensions of ethnicity are outlined: embodied ethnicity (being-in-the-world), embodied ethnic imaginary (remembering being-in-the-world), and embodied ethnic interactions (being-in-the-world with others). This analysis extends the post-assimilationist model by adding an embodied dimension, highlights the specificities of local ethnicity, and questions the concept of habitus.