Culture as Embodiment: The Social Tuning of Behavior

Utilizing the most recent insights in psychology, cognitive, and affective science, Culture as Embodiment reveals the true cultural patterning of behavior in group–related practices. Refuting longstanding notions that culture alone is responsible for group behavior, cultural psychology experts Voestermans and Verheggen cogently argue that behavioral science must first specify precisely what the notion of culture consists of, in terms of concrete empirical evidence. The authors proceed to lay out a coherent set of perspectives on the social tuning of the body, behaviour, feeling, and cognition to reveal that we call culture is actually an embodied affair, to be observed in recognizable practices among group members. Their conclusions are supported through lengthy analyses of key domains of human behavior, including gender and male–female power relations, class and age differences, ethnicity, and religious faith. Thought–provoking and timely, Culture as Embodiment offers original and indispensable insights into our understanding of the forces that shape behavior in the 21st–century globalized world.

Preface vii Acknowledgments xii Part One Towards a New Psychology of Culture 1 1 Understanding Culture 3 2 Inventing Culture Theory 27 3 A Psychological Perspective on Culture 70 Part Two Sex, Status, Age, Ethnicity, and Faith 109 4 Sex: The Shaping of Sex and Gender 113 5 Status: The Body of Class and Organized Compliance 141 6 Age: The Optimal Balance of Love and Challenge 160 7 Ethnicity: Cultural Arrests and Bicultural Competence 188 8 Faith: Religion as a Man–made Order 211 Part Three Psychology and Globalization 243 9 A Psychology of Globalization 245 10 Epilogue 287 Bibliographical Essay 292 Index 319

Paul Voestermans is Emeritus Associate Professor in Cultural Psychology at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. He also taught at the Bogaziçi University in Istanbul. He has contributed articles on culture and behaviour in Theory & Psychology, New Ideas in Psychology, and has written several books in the field. Theo Verheggen is Associate Professor in Cultural Psychology and History of Psychology at the Open Universiteit Nederland. He has published several articles on the development of an enactive perspective for cultural psychology in various books and journals.