Task II: The Body Politic

"The human body has been a potent and persistent metaphor for social and political relations throughout human history. For example, different parts of the body have traditionally represented different social functions. We refer to the ‘head of state’ without really recognising the metaphor. The heart has been a rich source of ideas about life, imagination, and emotions. The heart is the house of the soul and the book of life, and the ‘tables of the heart’ provided an insight into the whole of Nature. Our home is the heartland, where we feel most comfortable. The hand also plays an important role in conventional imagination regarding things that are beautiful (handsome) or damaged and incomplete (handicap). Furthermore, the dominant concerns and anxieties of society tend to be translated into disturbed images of the body. The dark symbolism of the dance macabre gave horrific expression to the devastation of the social order that had been brought about by the Black Death, and in modern society the scourge of cancer has often been imagined in military metaphors of invading armies. Disturbances in society are reflected in the metaphors by which we understand our mental and physical health. Hence, we live in a modern society that often appears to be out of joint. Body metaphors illustrate the fact we use the body as a convenient way for talking or thinking about the moral and political problems of society. Our sense of good and evil has also drawn heavily on bodily metaphors since what is sinister is related to left-handedness, the illegitimate side. Our sense of social order and disorder is spoken of in terms of the balance or imbalance of the body." [From Bryan Turner's "Social Fluids" at:  http://www.sps.cam.ac.uk/body/FluidsBryan.html]

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER: Why do you think traitors were beheaded and/or drawn and quartered in England during the late 16th and early 17th century?  That is, if the body is a metaphor for the state with the king as the head, why would beheading a traitor or chopping his limbs off be an appropriate punishment?  How is it a symbolic to behead a traitor or take the body apart?

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