Anthropology of Disembodiment

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Definition

“Disembodiment occurs when a person’s identity is separated from their physical presence (Slater, 2002)” and “there are others who believe engaging in CMC does not cause disembodiment of identity (Turkle, 1994, 1997), but instead acts as a catalyst for ‘re-embodiment’ and self-transformation (Pearce, 2009).”[1]

Therapeutic Disembodiment

AaronMillerand believes that "online interactions do facilitate a therapeutic process that stems into the offline world. Drawing on examples from my paper, specifically Peter, his online interactions helped him to develop the confidence to actually go out into the “real” world and meet people (Turkle, 1994). Before his involvement in the MUD, Peter online had one friend, being his college roommate and spent the majority of his time studying (Turkle, 1994)," and he brings up "another case that clearly illustrates this is Lynn. Lynn, who suffered paralysis after an accident, joined an online RPG and created an avatar to represent the person she once was, a very active person in the community (Pearce, 2009). Lynn used her avatar as an extension of herself to help people the way she used to prior to her accident, which she stated helped bring her out of her depression to start living her life (Pearce, 2009). In these cases, I think online interactions have definitely had an impact on their offline issues.[2]

Research on Disembodiment and Cyberspace

Symbolic and Experiential Consumption of Body in Virtual Worlds: from (Dis)Embodiment to Symembodiment (pdf). Vol. 1. No. 2 ISSN: 1941-8477 “Virtual Worlds Research: Consumer Behavior in Virtual Worlds” November 2008. Handan Vicdan, College of Business Administration, The University of Texas-Pan American; Ebru Ulusoy, College of Business Administration, The University of Texas-Pan American.

A Closer Look at the Disembodiment of Cyberspace Mel Watts. April 2010.

Embodiment, Disembodiment and Altered States of Consciousness in Yanomami Shamanistic Initiation - Theoretical background information complementary to the presentation scheduled for 13. June. Dr. Zeljko Jokic. University of Sydney, Australia.

"As virtual worlds develop on the Internet and become more integrated into people's daily lives, we need to examine issues concerning how people are represented, and how these representations through the electronic medium affect people's social relationships and own identities. We can ask questions such as, what is the social function of the body, and what does the absence of body mean for social relationships? How is the body represented in cyberspace/virtual reality and to what end? What kind of interface should we consider to represent the body, and what effect would it have on communication and understanding? When we consider social agents, what effect will new forms of physical appearance (or lack of) have? And with new physical representations should we expect new gender roles, perhaps in addition to the identity deception and temporary personae that we already see in cyberspace?". [3]

"One of the most pervasive themes in the fiction and theory of cyberculture of the past few decades has been that the human body is vanishing, irrelevant or, interfaced with the machine, an empty shell robbed of what is variously called spirit, consciousness or identity".[4]

This article aims to demonstrate that the philosophical anthropology of the German philosopher Helmuth Plessner (1892-1985) enables us to gain a better understanding of the experiential presuppositions and implications of information and communication technologies, such as telepresence and virtual reality, than we can obtain through interpretations that start from a dualistic, Cartesian ontology. With the help of Plessner's concept of "excentric positionality', developed in Stages of the Organic and Man (1928), Hans Moravec's Utopian claims about the possibility of disembodied existence in cyberspace are criticized and an alternative, more adequate interpretation is presented. It is argued that the corporal "poly-excentric positionality' that is inherent in the human experience of telepresence and virtual reality, radicalizes the existential " homelessness' which characterizes human life.[5]

Digitally Mediated (Dis)embodiment. Information, Communication & Society. Volume 6, Issue 2, 2003, Pages 247 - 266 Author: Jos de Mula. DOI: 10.1080/1369118032000093914.

References

  1. Disembodiment and Re-embodiment of Identity in Multi-Player Dungeons and Online Role Playing Games 25/04/2010 by AaronMillerand. Online Conference on Networks and CommunitiesDepartment of Internet Studies, Curtin University of Technology.
  2. AaronMillerand in comment to Jordannaepp. Disembodiment and Re-embodiment of Identity in Multi-Player Dungeons and Online Role Playing Games 25/04/2010 by AaronMillerand. Online Conference on Networks and Communities - Department of Internet Studies, Curtin University of Technology.
  3. Flying Through Walls and Virtual Drunkenness: Disembodiment in Cyberspace? (transcript) by Gloria Mark.
  4. Homogenous Eclecticism and Disembodiment in Neutral Semantic Space By Terryl Atkins.
  5. Of Shit and the Soul: Tropes of Cybernetic Disembodiment in Contemporary Culture by Allison Muri. Published in Body & Society 9.3 (2003): 73–92.