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“The body refers a lot to the human being –
the human being in his individual and social dimensions. The
anthropology of the body deals with these issues and with health
– on a social point of view. Everyone faces his body and
health on a daily basis – with a very specific manner to
manage them according to his background.
In a sports Faculty , I teach all that deals with illness, disability
and social integration issues in connection with physical activities
and sport. Underlying these activities, health, integration and
relationship with the body issues are dealt with. I work on two
ongoing research projects. The first one deals with the monitoring
of children who have been hospitalised in a neonatal department
and who are at risk with disability. The other deals with drug-resistant
children with epilepsy and their families. How do they cope on
a daily basis with the risk of the outbreak of a crisis ?
I
have spent three years in Mali, including six months in the bush with
families, a member of which was epileptic, in order to try to
discover the cultural dynamics handled by these people. During
these six months – with no electricity nor material comfort,
I have fed on rice and millet only, sometimes with onion sauce.
However, I never lacked anything. After a few weeks, a few months,
I felt as if I had removed my layers of superficiality . What
was left in me was the essential core. I found a great deal of
richness in the relationships I had with the people around me.
Such is the position of an anthropologist in connection with
their research. My research brings me back to the richness of
daily life and the more I think about my research, the more my
daily life makes sense. |
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