Descartes’ shadow: boxing and the fear of mind-body dualism

Hopkinson, Leo

Abstract

This article explores the body and self engendered through a boxer’s training, drawing on fieldwork conducted in boxing gyms in Montreal and Edinburgh. Contrary to contemporary anthropological accounts of the sport, I argue that training practices in these gyms instill a dualistic sense of self, evocative of Cartesian dualism. Paradoxically this is not alternative to, but concurrent with, a sense of embodied knowledge and selfhood in proficient boxers. Dualistic selfhood is traced throughout training regimes and in a boxer’s progress from novice to experienced pugilist, considering the different practices developed and encountered during this progress. I conclude by problematizing the anthropological fear of the Cartesian body. By treating the Cartesian body as a philosophical mistake rather than a social reification, social scientists working with concepts of body and self risk creating a straw man that inhibits their capacity to analyze mind-body dualism as a social construct.

Citation

Hopkinson, L. (2015). Descartes’ shadow: boxing and the fear of mind-body dualism. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 5(2), 177-199. https://doi.org/10.14318/hau5.2.012

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 30, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Oct 30, 2015
• Publication Date: 2015
• Deposit Date: Aug 17, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 17, 2022
• Journal: HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory
• Electronic ISSN: 2049-1115
• Publisher: HAU Society for Ethnographic Theory
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 177-199
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.14318/hau5.2.012
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1194407
• Related Public URLs: https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/descartes-shadow-boxing-and-the-fear-of-mind-body-dualism