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

Hopkinson, Leo

doi:10.14318/hau5.2.012

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

Hopkinson, Leo

Authors

Dr Leo Hopkinson leo.hopkinson@durham.ac.uk
Lecturer

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
Related Public URLs	https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/descartes-shadow-boxing-and-the-fear-of-mind-body-dualism