by Catherine Manson Benjamin Campbell’s article covers how the notions of vitality may affect the ideas and feelings of satisfaction in the lives of men in East Africa. The men studied by Campbell were from a subsistence society identified as the Ariaal in Northern Kenya. This study only looks at the men in subsistence societies because of the issues in eliminating how the difference in men and women could affect the results. These issues are stemmed through the differences in sex steroids, estrogen and testosterone, and the sexual dimorphism between males and females. The hypothesis behind this study is that stimuli, in this case testosterone, affect the embodiment of how men perceive vitality. Embodiment is explained throughout the article as the cognition of an individual based on the personal experiences of the body; although Campbell offers that embodiment can be varied in definition.
Campbell states that he began the study expecting to see results conclusive to embodiment of positive or negative experience based on levels of testosterone. The preconceived notion of higher levels of testosterone correlating to health benefits was one factor in identifying testosterone as a cause of positive embodiment. In the section “Testosterone and Vitality” it is stated “…testosterone promotes red blood cell production (Shahidi, 1973, Molinari, 1982), increasing oxygen delivery to all tissues (not just muscle) and promoting their functioning”. Campbell briefly compares the testosterone levels of males in subsistence and non-subsistence societies; stating that, although males in subsistence societies have lower testosterone levels overall, they have a smaller decrease in their lifetime. While studying the Ariaal men and taking testosterone tests through saliva, Campbell also did genetic testing on the participants. The genes were tested for two alleles that could give the participants predispositions toward positive or negative feelings. The first gene tested for was DRD2, which is related to dopamine receptors; the second was Taq1 A1+, related to substance abuse. The men were grouped in ages of 10 (30, 40, 50, 60+) and also asked questions from the WHOQOL. To gain a cross comparison perspective on the Ariaal men, tests were run on nomadic men of Ariaal and settled men of Turkana. The Turkana are very similar to the Ariaal and were used to compare the embodied satisfaction of energy, emotion, and libido. In addition to studying the levels of testosterone in the Ariaal and Turkana men, Campbell touches on the problems of embodiment based on the ideas of what gives men vitality. Citing from Weston La Barre’s Muelos: A Stone Age Superstition about Sexuality (1984), he describes the preconceived concepts that all societies have about men’s vitality. He argues that such preconceptions make it much more difficult to ask questions on vitality to the Ariaal men participating in the study. The ideas that the Ariaal have about vitality stem from observations they have made about the cattle herded by the society. The Ariaal believe that the brain, spine and penis are interconnected as one, giving men vitality. This belief equates the brain and semen in giving vitality to men. Campbell lists multiple other cultures with similar beliefs. He states that these ideas make it nearly impossible to have purely empirical data when studying men’s vitality and embodiment. Campbell concludes that the research done is not entirely finished and that to complete the entire study would be very difficult. He states that in order to have a fully conclusive research study would need brain scans of the Ariaal men, which is not completely feasible in the present. Campbell also concludes that the misconceptions about male vitality within the community cannot be extracted from the existing embodiment of the participant. Therefore, you must also run additional exams and tests to account for such results. The strengths of this article are asserted mainly in introducing the difficulties and additional questions that arose during his studies on the Ariaal and Turkana. Campbell’s recognition of the necessity of further research on how embodiment is perceived in context to male vitality is excellent. He cites many cultural studies involving the belief in Muelos and further explains how these beliefs can affect the beliefs about vitality in men. Campbell also discusses the difficulties in gathering data from the WHOQOL, or World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaire, can also be flawed. Such as the necessity of over simplification of the questions asked. The weaknesses in this article and study can be seen as a lack of ability to complete the study on the Ariaal and Turkana. Which also affects his ability to give a clear conclusion on his data findings, which is also lacking in the article. Lend, Daniel H., Greg Downey (2012-08-24). The Encultured Brain: An Introduction to Neuroanthropology (237-259). The MIT Press.
15 Comments
Nick Roy
3/9/2016 05:46:36 am
I enjoyed the switch in conversation this article brought by talking about the interrelation between embodiment, sexuality, and gender. I've been waiting for such a conversation since I learned what embodiment meant earlier in class. With that said, I can't help but feel a little disappointed in that the author dismissed looking at testosterone levels in women. He then went on to say that testosterone was the "male" hormone. While it is true that testosterone affects men and women differently, to say that it is the "male" hormone or that estrogen is the "female" hormone is a simplification. Both men and women contain both hormones, just in different proportions. Both hormones have noticeable effects on both men and women, effects worth looking at. Not much has been studied about testosterone cross-culturally in men and women and I think it would be a great avenue for future research if testosterone in women was looked at as well.
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Nick Roy
5/4/2016 10:38:05 am
After listening to my classmates discuss the need for a feminist neuroanthropology, I am more convinced of the need to bring in different perspectives into neuroanthropology. This chapter and the chapter on humor as a coping mechanism were the only two chapters in the text that focused exclusively on a particular gender: men for this one, women for the other. I previously critiqued this study's narrow focus on testosterone on men instead of women. I think a feminist neuroanthropological perspective could be applied here by looking at how testosterone effects women cross-culturally.
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Amanda Oldani
3/9/2016 07:24:32 am
I agree with Catherine and Nick that the author’s conclusions were not as solid as I would have hoped, but this is an interesting topic to continue reading about. I also have to agree with Nick about the simplification of the “male and female” hormones. I am highly curious about how women could be added to the equation in future studies and what other hormones or indicators could be examined.
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Amanda Oldani
3/9/2016 09:44:56 am
I realize my first post accidentally cut off some of my other thoughts:
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Amanda Oldani
4/27/2016 07:21:33 am
After our class discussion and reading some of the comments, I am still pretty interested in this topic, but I also still have a lot of questions. I think Myra's suggestions are very interesting and could give more insight, but I think it would be quite a while before we see the research expand that much. I also still think the topic of embodiment is very important; this study combines the subjective sense of the body with the physiological sense. I also think the peripheral effects of testosterone, like increased RBC production, are very interesting-- I am curious about estrogen and how it can relate to other effects in women, or if the testosterone effects transfer to women as well.
Michelle Bird
3/9/2016 09:18:21 am
I thought this article was incredibly interesting. As a Classics major, I've been pretty familiar with the homosexual practices among Greek men and boys for a long time, but I'd never put the behavior in a physiological context - we were taught that genders were so separated in that time period that boys were raised thinking men and women could not share a pure love amongst each other, and sexual activities among men were seen as shared learning experiences rather than a means for physical satisfaction (relationships like the latter were frowned upon and considered base and immoral). That this mentality was present in societies that vary greatly from that of the ancient Greeks, that would have never even had contact with them, is incredible. The concept of male vitality must be very deeply ingrained, indeed.
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Michelle 2nd post
5/5/2016 08:39:57 pm
My feelings about this study haven’t changed much after class discussion, but I can say that I think there is a significant amount of interest in this area, especially after we discussed the necessity of utilizing a gender or racially-sensitive lens in neuroanthropology. I feel that it is important to understand how men embody vitality within and among varying cultures – this will hopefully allow us to bridge some of the gaps that exist between not only amongst males, but between male and female as well.
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Olivia Davis
3/9/2016 09:29:17 am
Although this chapter was set up in a more technical and 'scientific' fashion, I found it's content to be very compelling for the neuroanthropological cause. As the author makes an argument for the concept of embodiment and what it means universally (if such a definition exists) he quotes Whitehead's statement that certain bodily experiences involve "the 'misplaced concrete,' in which the abstraction is mistaken for its concrete parts." In other words, that an emotion, a mental state or an abstract human event of any sort can be linked either directly or indirectly to some bodily function or physiological state of being. In this case specifically, Campbell looks at testosterone levels between industrialized and subsistence societies and makes a case for a correlation between the androgen and an overall sense of well-being and energy in men. I think that this is an interesting topic in terms of how something as seemingly uncontrollable as hormones can effect one's thoughts, behaviors, and actions within the community and how one man's or a group of men's vitality can alter the rest of the community.
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Olivia Davis
5/5/2016 09:38:59 am
Connectivity is the cornerstone on which the human population operates and maintains it's status on planet earth, so the fact that physiological factors are connected to behaviors and overall senses of well-being comes as less of a shock to me the more I delve into the neuroanthropological perspective. The endocrine system is one of many bodily systems that affects our well-being, our relationships, and even our communities. No connection is too small to effect the greater scheme of things.
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Myra Barrett
3/9/2016 09:51:58 am
I agree with Nick that it would be worthwhile to study testosterone levels in women. I think it would also be interesting to study estrogen levels in men in this same fashion. Specifically, I think it would be insightful to recreate this study in societies where women are seen as the providers. It would be interesting to see if similar results are produced in societies where women are expected to be aggressive and men are expected to be nurturing. I think that it would be interesting to compare the vitality in men across different cultures and see what different conditions mean for how semen is seen as far as vitality and a life source. Would low testosterone levels be seen as a commodity in cultures where men are seen as caregivers? Would there be a difference seen in societies with more gender equality?
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Myra
5/4/2016 02:27:05 pm
I think this kind of goes back to the discussion we had about having a feminist view in neuroanthropological studies. Obviously, in this case, male vitality and masculinity in general are seen as the epitome of health. I'm curious as to what the women's view in this society would be.
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AuthorThis blog is group authored by Dr. DeCaro and the students in his ANT 474/574: Neuroanthropology. Archives
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