Interpreting the Body: Between Meaning and Matter

How do we attend to the meaning-making process of corporeality, both theoretically and methodologically?What is the interplay between lived experience, materiality, and social meaning?This collection of 10 chapters seeks answers to these and other related questions.The book was published in the new series Interpretive lenses in sociology (DeGloma & Wiest, 2022), which provides a space for reflection on interpretive approaches to particular themes (religion, memory, the body) in sociology.The series-and this bookaims to prompt readers into a reflective exploration of two dimensions.First, it examines how individuals and communities attribute meaning to their experiences and identities and how social forces shape these meaning-making processes.Second, the authors invite reflection on the interpretive process itself.For clarity, the chapters of this book can be divided into three essential parts.The first part addresses the theoretical conceptualization of the interpretation of the body.The second part discusses the political themes, particularly the postcolonial critique of cultural appropriation and the gendering of bodies.Finally, the last section focuses on methodological issues.The first part opens with Champagne drawing on Alexander and Smith's (2003) discourse on cultural autonomy and the degree to which symbols embody ideals or serve as practical tools, influencing the significance attributed to bodies and material objects.Champagne utilizes these discussions to advocate for "a strong cultural sociology of the body" (p.20), conceived of as shaped by cultural codes and reliant on interpretation.Through an examination of cultural and bodily themes across various analytical perspectives, Champagne illustrates how differing views on cultural autonomy influence interpretations of social phenomena.While outlining the methodological principles of the Strong Program in Cultural Sociology-acknowledging cultural autonomy, engaging in hermeneutic reconstruction, and employing "maximal interpretations" (incorporating Reed, 2011)-Champagne suggests prioritizing meaning-centered approaches to the body and embodiment.This perspective underscores the interaction between subjectivity and cultural context, emphasizing the pivotal role of interpretation in shaping bodily experiences within society.The chapter introduces the notion of culture as a "skein" (p.26), described as a fabric of material things and collective sentiments.This perspective frames the process of interpretation as a practice akin to painting or photography-an untangling of the cultural "skein."While I find this line of thought compelling, I am not entirely convinced by the critique that the Strong Program's main theoretical challenge lies in its view of culture as an independent variable distinct from its physical and material mediums.From my perspective, another potential challenge could be the notion of a fixed and timeless interpretive framework.This framework suggests