https://doi.org/10.25058/20112742.n31.15

Luciano G. Uzal
Orcid ID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7141-7976
Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
lucguzal@gmail.com

Abstract:

This paper inquires for the potential and limitations of structuralist-based (Mary Douglas and Julia Kristeva) and phenomenological (embodiment theories) theoretical proposals to think of the body in general, and of dead body in particular. Throughout the text, I aim to account for the complexity of the (socially crafted) distinction between the living and the dead, and to show in which dimensions it is suitable to think of identity beyond the threshold of death. Additionally, several theoretical guidelines are outlined to build conceptual alternatives for its analysis, based on the feminist criticism on notions of gender, sex, matter, and nature.

Keywords: dead body, corpse, anthropology of body, materiality, death.