A Multidisciplinary Approach to Embodiment

This is a collection of pithy and accessible essays on the nature and implications of human embodiment which explore the concept of 'human being' in the most unprecedented manner through seemingly disparate academic disciplines. With contributions from key researchers from around the world, this book engages with embodiment through the lens of "new materialism". It eschews the view that human beings are debased by materiality and creates a vision of humans as fully embodied creatures situated in a richly populated living planet. The essays in this volume will illustrate and foster new materialist thought in areas including psychology, astrophysics, geology, biology, sociology, philosophy, and the performing arts. The book's engaging and enlightening content is made accessible to readers with relatively little background in the various academic disciplines. This is an important and fascinating text which invites readers to explore and expand their understanding and experience of embodiment. It will be particularly useful for postgraduate students and scholars of theoretical and philosophical psychology, philosophy of the mind, and social and cultural anthropology.

Nancy K. Dess, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at Occidental College, USA, with primary expertise in experimental and comparative psychology. Beyond her empirical research, she advocates for multilevel integrative approaches to complex phenomena, the democratizing potential of science, and fully embodied conceptualizations of the lives of humans and other animals.

Series Editor's Foreword (Brent D. Slife) Preface by the Book Editor (Nancy K. Dess) List of Contributors Introduction Face it or Replace it? Why Computational Metaphors Fall Short and Why We Need a New Approach (Louise Barrett) Part I: Being - The Matter of Life and Death: How Humans Embody the Universe (Iris Schrijver and Karel Schrijver) - At Home in Deep Time (Marcia Bjornerud) - The Secrets of Life: The Vital Roles of RNA Networks and Viruses (Luis Villarreal and Guenther Witzany) - A Brief History of Death (Sheldon Solomon) Part II: Engaging - Attentive Bodies: Epigenetic Processes and Concepts of Human Being (Samantha Frost) - Uncovering the Living Body: Bodies and Agents in the Cognitive Sciences (Fred Keijzer) - Approaching Learning Hands First: How Gesture Influences Thought (Susan Goldin-Meadow) - Digitization, Reading, and the Body: Handling Texts on Paper and Screens (Anne Mangen) Part III: Coordinating - Embodied Time: A Shared, Ancient Heritage (Barbara Helm) - Rhythm and the Body (Gregory A. Bryant) - The Embodiment of Emotion (Giovanna Colombetti) - Body Focus in Expert Action (Barbara Gail Montero, John Toner, and Aidan Moran) Part IV: (Re)Locating - How Bodies Become Viscous (Arun Saldanha) - Embodiment, Plasticity, Biosociality, and Epigenetics: The Politics of a Vulnerable Body for Toxic Times (Maurizio Meloni) - Violating the Inviolable: Evolved Reproductive Prerogatives of Individual Women (Patricia Adair Gowaty) - Embodiment and the Lived Experience of Diaspora (Bibi Bakare-Yusuf) Part V: Healing - Vital Energy, Health, and Medicine (Shin Lin and Gaetan Chevalier) - The Power of Touch: Oxytocin, the "Love Hormone," is Released by Massage Therapy (Tiffany Field) - Traumatic Embodiment: Traumatic Exposure and Healing (Paula Thomson) - Virtual Embodiment and Embodied Cognition: Effect of Virtual Reality Perspective Taking Tasks on Empathy and Prejudice (Fernanda Herrera) Epilogue What Embodiment Is (Anthony Chemero) Index