The Cult of the Body: A Pioneering Insight into Our Intimacy

Pessimistic social scientists might say that the modern sociological scene is permanently stuck at the end of the last century, but the book “The Cult/ura of the Body” by Prof. Dr. Lidija Vujacic shows that the Montenegrin, but also the wider public, can be optimistic about the scientific progress of this valuable science.

The book launch, held this Monday at Kuslev's house, included an exhibition of paintings under the same title, which represents a unique combination of text and visuals for the sake of a superior way of presenting ideas.

This book provides insight into the sociological understanding of what is most intimate for everyone, their own body, but paradoxically in the context of the phenomenon of the public. This paradox shows the worrying increase in socio-consumerist control over the individual that is secretly manifested in everyday life.

Vujačić said that the anthropology of the body is just one of the topics she deals with, in addition to the anthropology of media, culture, and consumerism, but that all of them are related areas within sociocultural anthropology.

"I will say that the anthropology of the body is one of the topics I deal with, so in sociocultural anthropology, which is my education and interest, in addition to media anthropology, in addition to the anthropology of consumerism, in addition to the anthropology of popular culture. I will say that these are all related fields, or disciplines and topics, types of culture," she said.

Vujačić connects the mass existence of modern society, through production and consumption, with greater democratization, but also greater assimilation of the individual.

"The masses, mass production, mass reception, in the sense that there is excessive production of everything, including the type of body, I mean first of all other content, which simplifies all that, democratizes our environment, so this type of culture, which is that mass media culture, consumerist culture, global culture, we offer what, offers an abundance of everything and anything, which undoubtedly democratizes the environment, on the one hand, on the other hand it leads us towards some similarity, even sameness, which is not good, it simplifies content, so it has both a good and a bad side," she believes.

Professor Sonja Tomović Šundić She said that the integrity of this work, both pictorially and scientifically, should be understood as a necessary combination of the visual and the conceptual in order to explain the very complex phenomenon of mass postmodern culture.

"Her entire body of work, both artistic and scientific, should be understood as a combination of the pictorial and the conceptual, in order to illuminate one of the most complex phenomena of the time in which we live. Her book and her visual works are a latent critique of the materialistic civilization in which we live. If we know that popular culture, which emerged on the foundations of mass production in the 18th and 19th centuries and as a resistance or opposition to elite culture, if we know that both popular culture and media civilization, as the key, as the essence of the time in which we live, actually brought a new reinterpretation of the body. The cult of the body, which measures in that certain bodily and physical aspect, reduces man exclusively to his physical attributes, regardless of all the codes and all the meanings that the body as a message can carry," she said.

She adds that it is clear that today's civilization is responsible for the nakedness of the body, which for her implies the totalitarianism of the market and profit that destroys our inherent stratification.

"It is clear that our civilization has stripped the body, that is, it has reduced man to the body. We can practically speak of the cult of the body, of a new mythology, of a new totalitarianism, if you will, in the post-utopian time in which we live, in which man as a personality, who has many layers and many properties, mental, spiritual, is reduced to what his physicality is. And physicality is reduced to what is marketable, to what is profitable, to what is changeable. If we live in a world of class identity, as has already been said by Zygmunt Bauman and other great authorities in this field, then it is clear that our identities are rationally constructed into a single social reality," adds Tomović Šundić.

Mr Anđela Jelic Čvorović believes that the value of this book lies in its extensive examination of the social phenomenon of the body, which shows that social norms have replaced corporal punishment as a form of control.

“Today, a socially acceptable model is imposed on the body. The aim is for sameness. And here we come to a paradox. That is precisely why the book 'Cult/ura of the Body' represents an extremely important and, I dare say, pioneering work in our region. What sets this book apart is its breadth. From the anthropological understanding of the body through ethics and control to contemporary phenomena such as the performative society, medicalization and the body as a social code. Throughout history, the body has always been a place over which power is exercised. Punishment has always gone through the body. Whether it was physical punishment, isolation, branding or even symbolic humiliation. But what is important to emphasize is that such control has not disappeared. It has only changed. Today, we are no longer talking only about punishments but about norms. The body is still under control, but through ideals, standards and expectations.”