To Dress or Not to Dress: Body Representations of the Ethnic Minorities on China's Southwestern Frontiers

Inner Asia ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-203 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Power Structure ◽  
The Body ◽  
Semiotic System ◽  
Body Representations ◽  
Late Qing ◽  
Representation Form ◽  
System Functioning ◽  
Intellectual Elites

AbstractThis paper aims to draw attention to the ways in which China's political authorities and intellectual elites have been using 'dress' either to imperialise or to nationalise the ethnic minorities of Southwestern frontiers since the late qing. it argues that the intensely politicised nature of costumed body and embodied dress of the Southwestern minorities is a stage for debates about civilisation, diversity, Darwinist evolution and the uniqueness of China's modernity. it suggests that the body of the Southwestern ethnic and the dress as its vestimentary representation form a mutually reinforcing semiotic system, functioning as a visual means to shape China's power structure.

scholarly journals Broadening the Scope of Diversity Management : Strategic Implications in the Case of the Netherlands

2005 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 698-724 ◽  
Author(s):  
Folke Glastra ◽  
Martha Meerman ◽  
Petra Schedler ◽  
Sjiera de Vries
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
Diversity Management ◽  
The Body ◽  
Organizational Dynamics ◽  
Contextual Approach ◽  
Challenging Tasks

An analysis of theories and practices of diversity management, as illustrated in the case of the Netherlands, shows that they are too narrowly focused on redressing imbalances experienced by ethnic minorities and bridging cultural differences between majorities and ethnic minorities in the workplace. Agencies in the field of diversity management have fallen back on a limited and standardized stock of methods that ignore the specificity of organizational dynamics and largely operate in isolation from existing equity policies. The influence of diversity management has thus remained quite superficial. A contextual approach would broaden both the body of thought and the repertory of methods of diversity management, and strengthen its political and social relations. Such an approach would respond to its most challenging tasks: fostering social justice, enhancing productivity, and breaking the circle that equates cultural difference with social inequality

Cortisol – inspection in the physiology and stress

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-36
Author(s):  
Nikola Musiała ◽  
Iga Hołyńska-Iwan ◽  
Dorota Olszewska-Słonina
Keyword(s):  
Wide Spectrum ◽  
Hormone Secretion ◽  
Laboratory Diagnosis ◽  
The Body ◽  
Stress Hormone ◽  
Renal Handling ◽  
Peripheral Tissues ◽  
Neurotransmitter Secretion ◽  
Fatty Acids Metabolism ◽  
System Functioning

Cortisol, also called “the” stress hormone is a glucocorticoid secreted by the adrenal cortex. This hormone plays a significant role in maintaining homeostasis, according to the body’s total stress. Cortisol interferes with many organs, affects glucose and fatty acids metabolism and neurotransmitter secretion. Predominantly, cortisol influences the carbohydrate metabolism, stimulating gluconeogenesis in the liver and inhibiting glucose utilization in peripheral tissues. As it is an element “fight or flight” it also stimulates central nervous system and enhances blood flow. To some extent cortisol influences also the renal handling of electrolytes, namely: increasing sodium resorption, and renal excretion of potassium, calcium and phosphates. Through its anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive character this glucocorticoid modulates the immune system functioning. Cortisol has a circadian rhythm following ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone) secretion. Increased cortisol levels are observed physiologically during stress and pathologically in Cushing’s syndrome. Chronic hypercortisolism is harmful or the body, and its effects present an extremely wide spectrum, including insulin resistance, obesity, insomnia and even depression. Thus, laboratory diagnosis of cortisol level is important for the diagnosis, monitoring and evaluate the effectiveness of hypercortisolism treatment.

scholarly journals Experimentally induced pain does not influence updating of peripersonal space and body representations following tool-use

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Axel Davies Vittersø ◽  
Monika Halicka ◽  
Gavin Buckingham ◽  
Michael J Proulx ◽  
Mark Wilson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Pain ◽  
Tool Use ◽  
Experimental Pain ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Representations ◽  
Tactile Target ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Chronic Pain Conditions ◽  
Crossmodal Congruency

Representations of the body and peripersonal space can be distorted for people with some chronic pain conditions. Experimental pain induction can give rise to similar, but transient distortions in healthy individuals. However, spatial and bodily representations are dynamic, and constantly update as we interact with objects in our environment. It is unclear whether induced pain disrupts the mechanisms involved in updating these representations. In the present study, we sought to investigate the effect of induced pain on the updating of peripersonal space and body representations during and following tool-use. We compared performance under three conditions (pain, active placebo, neutral) on a visuotactile crossmodal congruency task and a tactile distance judgement task to measure updating of peripersonal space and body representations, respectively. We induced pain by applying 1% capsaicin cream to the arm, and for placebo we used a gel that induced non-painful warming. Consistent with previous findings, the difference in crossmodal interference from visual distractors in the same compared to opposite visual field to the tactile target was less when tools were crossed than uncrossed. This suggests an extension of peripersonal space to incorporate the tips of the tools. Also consistent with previous findings, estimates of the felt distance between two points (tactile distance judgements) decreased after active tool-use. In contrast to our predictions, however, we found no evidence that pain interfered with performance on either task when compared to the control conditions. This suggests that the updating of peripersonal space and body representations is not disrupted by induced pain. Therefore, acute pain does not account for the distorted representations of the body and peripersonal space that can endure in people with chronic pain conditions.

scholarly journals Just a heartbeat away from one's body: interoceptive sensitivity predicts malleability of body-representations

2011 ◽  
Vol 278 (1717) ◽  
pp. 2470-2476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manos Tsakiris ◽  
Ana Tajadura- Jiménez ◽  
Marcello Costantini
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Stimulation ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Body Awareness ◽  
The Body ◽  
Interoceptive Awareness ◽  
Body Ownership ◽  
Body Representations ◽  
Monitoring Task ◽  
Interoceptive Sensitivity ◽  
First Time

Body-awareness relies on the representation of both interoceptive and exteroceptive percepts coming from one's body. However, the exact relationship and possible interaction of interoceptive and exteroceptive systems for body-awareness remain unknown. We sought to understand for the first time, to our knowledge, the interaction between interoceptive and exteroceptive awareness of the body. First, we measured interoceptive awareness with an established heartbeat monitoring task. We, then, used a multi-sensory-induced manipulation of body-ownership (e.g. Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI)) and we quantified the extent to which participants experienced ownership over a foreign body-part using behavioural, physiological and introspective measures. The results suggest that interoceptive sensitivity predicts the malleability of body representations, that is, people with low interoceptive sensitivity experienced a stronger illusion of ownership in the RHI. Importantly, this effect was not simply owing to a poor proprioceptive representation or differences in autonomic states of one's body prior to the multi-sensory stimulation, suggesting that interoceptive awareness modulates the online integration of multi-sensory body-percepts.

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