Posting Assignment #2: So WHERE did I learn to talk (walk, eat, dance, feel, love, dress, vote....)? INSTITUTIONS — and how they work on us (Due 11:59 Sunday 22; comment by 11:59 Monday 23)

[Lore from the nobleist of 'Noble Savages' is passed down to a cute (very Anglo) Boy Scout in this image from the Scouts' Order of the Arrow.  Note to all: remember this when we work on Avatar.]








In our work on 'institutions'  and their 'body practices' we looked at a wonderful old Boy Scout Handbook (1927) and its recommendations in regard to young boy's sexual 'body practices.'  We offered it as an example of 'how culture gets inside us.'  We suggested that it was an example of how, through these practices, 'culture is made flesh.'  And Robin claimed (Moodle front matter) that '... boys who read and are subjected by this text (and the practices around it) really will feel what the Handbook... promises. They will be more 'manly,' more 'noble.'  They will think higher thoughts.  We can take that to the bank.'   

Uh huh.  'Socially constructed' bodies and selves.  And as real as it gets.

-->  In this Post, you'll think of an institution of which you are (or were) a member, and explain how its practices  formed you (shaped your body into a sign).  <--

OK, let's get the terms straight:

• Institution:  Recall Pierre Bourdieu here ('Pierre Bourdieu explains bodies and culture'), talking about the body as 'a kind of memory' shaped by institutions. Tempting to think of institutions as Big Things like churches, schools, governments, and so on—and that's fine.  But let's open it up to include any organized, coherent group who's members would recognize that they're part of it, and that develops—consciously or not—a little (sub)culture with its cultural moves and behaviors.  So: families, clubs, teams, social organizations, gangs, Bible-study groups, abstinence clubs, 4H, FFA, club soccer teams, Glee, the Marines (and your platoon)....  Again, go for the unusual and unexpected — maybe something only you and your small 'subculture' understands.  

• Body Practice?: Things that members of a cultural or subcultural institution do, following the unwritten—and probably invisible—'rules.'  Things that come from, and support and reinforce our habitus.  Like what?  Well....like:
  
  horseback riding                                     home decorating
  dancing (and different moves)                 trash talk
  flirting                                                   rhyming
  ordering at a fast-food restaurant—or a    vamping
       fancy one                                         workouts (and the trash talk that goes with...)
  table manners                                        makeup (and all grooming)
  prayer                                                   hookups  (and virginity pledges)
  small talk                                              swearing (and all profane hand and body gestures) saggin'                                                  Twerking (had to mention it)
  bar fights                                               all manner of dress and dress codes                                       
  
  
  And infinite others.  The things people do—by which we know them, and they know themselves.

• Sign of positions:  Who's in?  Who's out?  Who's got game?  Who's lame?  Who's the shit?  Who's NOT 'one of us'?  How do these work?  How do you feel when you act, move, talk, dress right?  Or wrong? Bourdieu reminds us that all this values us—literally gives us social power, capital, value.  And critically: how do you know?

How to do it:

1. Think of an institution  — anything is fair game, but you'll want to find something you know well and can 'read' effectively—not too huge (which leads to generalizations), or too spare (which leads to having little to say).  Hit the 'finding' part hard; good object leads to good ideas;
2. Identify a few key (2-3) 'body practices,' maybe with a link or images if your institution is public enough to have them.  This is the key; find a few good ones, and you got it.
3. Describe and explain them (the hard part: showing how they look, act, work)
4. Say what they signify.  How, as Bourdieu says, they remind you—and everybody else—of their position. 

About the same size as last time — 200-300 words