by Daniel (Josh) QuillenChapter 9 of The Encultured Brain is written by Benjamin Campbell and explores the role of physiological status in human embodiment. Campbell starts by defining embodiment not as the non-physiological experiences of the mind and body, but as the neurophysiological experiences one feels via bodily functions centered around a person’s well-being. He explains that basic bodily sensations like arousal, thirst, hunger and temperature travel through the spinal cord to the thalamus, then the right anterior insula, which also receives input from the amygdala, the emotional expressor of the brain. Therefore, he posits the neuronal expression of the Insula reflects the feeling of a bodily status. Because these inputs are based mostly on environmental factors, he believes that people across cultures will experience a similar type of embodiment. In order to study this connection between physiological status and human embodiment he looks at the relationship between testosterone, vitality and feeling of well-being among men.
Campbell establishes that there is a clear link between testosterone levels and feelings of vitality, wellbeing and libido in men. While the neurological basis for the link is unclear, he posits it could be do to the extraneous effects testosterone has on peripheral tissues like promoting blood flow, oxygen intake and overall bodily function. Effects which would be represented in the insula as a feeling of well-being. In order to test if the effects of testosterone are consistent cross culturally Campbell looks at how men in subsistence societies have a different curve of testosterone levels throughout life then men in industrialized societies. A case study on nomadic Ariaal men in Kenya looks at the connection between these varying levels of testosterone across cultures and its affects on the men’s perceived satisfaction of energy, sex and positive emotions. The findings support the relationship between testosterone and wellbeing found in industrialized societies. This relationship between testosterone and wellbeing promotes the need to look beyond solely cultural ideology surrounding male masculinity and consider the neurophysiological experience men’s bodies undergo as well. In order to illustrate this point Campbell uses the example of Muelos. A belief throughout the world that semen is connected through the spine to the brain. Across a litany of cultures and time periods there are documented beliefs that this unit of spine-brain-semen represents male vitality and can be transferred between people. These beliefs can be explained via embodied cognition. Feelings of vitality libido and well being are based upon reenactments of memories. Testosterone levels change during periods of physical activity, sex and participates in memory recall. These changes in testosterone can bind the feelings of energy and wellbeing with the feeling and physical sensation of sex. This integrated connection involves the spine, brain and semen as one experience. Campbell illustrates that testosterone is not the direct cause of the experience of male vitality, but the effects testosterone on the body and the brain in conjunction environmental experience and stimuli. Campbell poses many questions to further this understanding of male vitality. Because testosterone has been shown to have a clear affect upon on levels of male embodiment in both the mind and body, He believes the most pressing question is are these elaborate beliefs like Muelos surrounding male vitality due to the physiological experiences of the body, or a common cultural ideology among societies with similar life styles? While Campbell does not address female embodiment in order to simplify his study it is an important question to follow through with. How do varying testosterone levels affect female wellbeing and how is this different the men? Are there other physiological factors with more or less influence on both or either men or women in respect to embodiment? Despite these understandable omissions his studies illustrate beautifully the connection between neurophysiological factors and their influence in sociocultural events. These connections are exactly what neuroanthropology is looking for and pushes neuroanthropologists to ask what other sociocultural experiences are influenced so strongly by neurophysiological factors? How do these experiences influence the neurophysiological factor’s expression and importance?
7 Comments
Casey Fulkerson
3/19/2019 08:30:03 pm
I looked up the effects of low testosterone in women and they are similar to those found in men: depression, low energy, and reduced libido (there are other effects, but those are the ones that Campbell also addresses on page 240). In both sexes, low testosterone is seen as being negative and is related to poor well-being because they deviate from the accepted "normal." However, high levels of testosterone are associated with high levels of well-being in men, while high levels of testosterone in women are related to low levels of well-being in women because elevated testosterone can cause acne, excess hair, smaller breasts, and irregular periods, all which deviate in some shape or form from what it means to be "healthy" as a woman.
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Kaitlyn May
3/20/2019 05:25:25 am
I am curious about potential confounds in these studies. One thing that came to mind was physical activity. Physical activity is also linked to less depressive symptoms, and the Aarial and Muelos men both have dramatically more physical activity than the average Western man. Another factor that I was curious about was diet. This is admittedly well out of my area, so this line of logic may be completely erroneous. But, in the States there are significantly more preservatives and additives added to our food to meet the demands of a large population and to keep up with our cultural preference for fast foods and more processed foods. An example of this is the steroid hormones added to milk. Some studies have suggested that these hormones are linked to earlier puberty in girls, excessive acne, or other hormonal fluctuations (see citations below). I was able to find a few articles that suggest that large consumption of milk decreases testosterone secretion because of the large amounts of estrogen and progesterone in genetically improved cows. This is where my knowledge stops, but I am curious if the drastically different diets of the discussed people groups would affect testosterone levels at all? It's not that I do not agree with the connection between testosterone and well-being in and of itself, but I did not feel like this chapter gave me the full picture. Pieces of the puzzle were missing, so to speak, and so I am hesitant to make the same larger conclusions from this chapter that the author made.
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Madi Moore
3/20/2019 07:07:57 am
I thought you wrote a nice review of chapter 9, "Embodiment and Male Vitality in Subsistence Societies." After reading Casey's comment to this blog post, I am very interested to see how this study would have played out if women were administered testosterone- both in industrial and subsistence societies. How did the experimenters determine the amount of testosterone to use? How would this amount change if administered to women? I am curious to see how changing the amount of testosterone given affects the subjective well-being of both men and women.
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Jennifer Fortunato
3/20/2019 09:37:35 am
Thank you for a great review of chapter 9. I also agree with Kaitlyn and Madi about the confounds of this study. My additional question that I have is about what constitutes as normality? Testosterone levels between these two different populations might differ in what they consider "normal" levels of testosterone. This consideration of normality differing between cultures reminds me of how different cultures treat psychiatric diseases. It has been a few years since I had a class discussing this so I may be a bit off in my analysis. However, I remember that certain groups stigmatizes psychiatric diseases and treats them as not normal, but other groups treats psychiatric diseases as less stigmatized and more normal. The different cultural beliefs affect how behavior is considered normal. Similarities may occur in hormone levels where different populations, depending on how isolated, may have slightly different biological definitions of "normal" hormone levels. This may mean that we cannot make true comparisons between industrial and nomadic societies. This could be particularly interesting from a neuroanthropological standpoint because then you can look at the evolution of how the brain responds to different amount of hormones and how that changes across different populations.
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Casey Fulkerson
4/23/2019 02:35:02 pm
It is quite remarkable how the "normal" idea of what health is affects how we perceive our own health. I appreciated how in class we also discussed the effects of testosterone levels on women and how their subjective health would vary based on whatever health was defined as. I also liked how we brought diet into the discussion in regards to men living in industrialized vs. subsistence societies.
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Brian Rivera
4/24/2019 02:21:03 pm
A thought that has come to mind thinking about this article has been how it would be possible to connect the phenomenological description of the experience of vitality with a neuroscientific explanation. Even though there might be doubts about the semen-spine-brain connection, it is possible that there is a phenomenological experience of vitality gathering feedback from the spine and brain.
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Kaitlyn May
4/24/2019 07:51:06 pm
Brian, I really like your idea about a phenomenological description of the experience of vitality with a neuroscientific explanation. I envision some sort of mixed methods study that analyzes fMRI or EEG data in light of participant description of their personal experiences. I remember we read a study that used a similar tactic where they discussed EEG data in light of participant descriptions of their experience in the study. I wonder how that type of paradigm might contribute to the discussion of the topic listed in this article.
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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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