Habitus

Annotated Bibliography Theory – this section contains sources that will help build my particular theoretical framework and its development throughout each part of the essay. Asad, Talal. Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Stanford; Stanford University Press, 2003. In chapter seven of his book, Talal Asad argues that Egyptian society had to undergo reconfigurations in its social landscape; that is it had to develop new social spheres among ordinary Egyptians that could…

stresses the importance in reflexivity while conducting social research. The sociologist must at all times be aware of their own habitus, their position of thought and in life and how bringing this to research will affect the research outcome. According to Bourdieu it is impossible for our objectivity to remain unbiased and unprejudiced due to our preconceived habitus. It is only by maintaining such a continual vigilance that the sociologists can spot themselves in the act of importing their…

Rather than class or status as purported by Marx and Weber, Bourdieu asserts that individuals are grouped based on their habitus or the ‘set of beliefs, attitudes, skills and practises possessed and applied’ in everyday life (Habibis & Walter 2015, p. 53). Similar capital leads to similar experiences that in turn mean that individuals tend to develop in shared habituses that…

In “ Home and Away: The Tensions of community, literacy, and identity,” Bronwyn T. Williams writes to researchers and teachers so that they understand that various backgrounds cause students to learn distinctly. Specifically, the family background tends to affect this academic discourse. In order to achieve this aim, he uses three moves: referencing other work, comparing and contrasting, and proposing a policy. To start, Bronwyn Williams proposes two policies that help students balance the…

differences in relative educational chances of children from different social backgrounds, a massive educational expansion and educational upward mobility that took place in developed countries refutes the omnipotence and durability of the family-related habitus. Thus, Goldthorpe concludes that original parts of Bourdieu's work are not empirically sound, whereas theoretically sound parts are not original, since they are in line with the existing sociological explanations that draw from…

good-taste and placing emphasis on their own cultural capital. Ideas that suggest the connection between capital and branding obsession become further apparent in this text. Sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu’s habitus framework becomes clear, the importance of the interactions between the individual (habitus), power relations (competition for forms of capital) and social structure (the field) (Stringfellow et al, 77). Part of enabling a positive version of this framework is to have ‘good taste’ an…

In order to critically discuss the concepts of place and belonging in relation to how identities are constructed, a definition of identity should be given. Bauman (2004) argues that classical sociologists did not directly discuss the concept of identity because it has only became a social concern in recent times. Identity has both a social element, relating to the social roles an individual person plays, and also a psychological element, which encompasses who the person is. Some aspects of…

Liam O’Meara Anthropology 103 Amster 4/4/24. Righteous Dopefiend The "Righteous Dopefiend" by Philippe Bourgois looks into the lives of homeless heroin addicts in San Francisco and sheds light on the daily struggles and the cultural dynamics that shape their existence and public/societal image. This paper aims to identify the main points of the book, examine its key arguments, and explore the book's insights revolving around the marginalized population that is Homeless Drug addicts.…

Book review: Mahmood, Saba (2005) Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Politics of Piety is about the formation of Islamic female subjects in Cairo, Egypt. In this monograph, Saba Mahmood follows the lives of participants of a female mosque movement. Her informants attend weekly prayers and religious lessons at local mosques in a conscious effort at religious furtherance. The mosque movement emerged in recent decades as part of…

Agency Theory in Archaeology Contemporary archaeological inquiry has situated itself under the umbrella of anthropology, an open marriage to many different ways of analyzing material culture; as it gives insight to both the physical world, as well as the social-cultural world. In this paper, I will discuss some of the beginnings to this union, and specifically the theory of agency as it relates to archaeological analysis. I enter into the debate among archaeology scholars by proposing that the…