EIRP Proceedings (May 2012)
Body and Dress in the Civilisation of Spectacles
Abstract
In traditionalist societies, as an individual who was an integral part of the cosmos and thecommunity to which he belonged, man would not view his body as a separate entity, as he would becomeaware of his physical “rooting” in a limited network of correspondences and meanings. The maincharacteristic of holistic societies was to “emphasize and use social totality” (Dumont, 1983, p. 263) to thedetriment of the individual, whose body did not exist as an element of individuality - as it would be the caselater on, in modern societies, where individualism was primary and the body was a personalizing factor. Inthe post-‘60s era, a new imagery of the body gained momentum, with a noted acceptance of individualism asa social structure and the embrace of a positive (lay) view upon nature. After that decade, “the Western mandiscovers that he has a body and this novelty follows its own route, whilst eliciting discourses and practicesthat carry a mass-media aura” (Dumont, 1983, p. 7). With the help of media representations, we will hereinoppose two types of bodies and dress, as they are reflected in some ritualistic carnival festivities nowadays:the Carnival of Venice and the one in Rio de Janeiro; on the other hand, we will see to what extent the “play”component of homo ludens has kept its dimension in the current society.
