by Madi MooreIn Chapter 6 of The Encultured Brain, Downey uses two forms of inverted balancing in different settings to explore the cultural adoptions of sensory systems, including equilibrium systems. The first act of balancing Downey describes is the Capoeira bananeira. A bananeira is essentially a dynamic, highly mobile, and responsive handstand technique within the dance-like martial art form known as Capoeira. Capoeira originated in Brazil, specifically from slaves who were taken from Africa and brought to Brazil. Downey also describes in this chapter a second form of inverted balancing: a static, symmetrical, and rigid handstand as seen in Olympic gymnastics.
Our sense of balance and equilibrium system are both extremely complex. The vestibular system is located in the inner ear and includes semicircular canals and otoliths. In general, sensations from the inner ear organs help humans with body positioning, including while stationary and during movements. In addition to the equilibrium system, other sensory systems, including vision, proprioception, and pressure perception, aid in body positioning and balance. Downey defines our sense of balance as being essentially a “synthesis of diverse afferences and often-unconscious compensatory behavior” (p 174). The brain comes into conversation in Chapter 6 when discussing the plasticity of the equilibrium system in reference to the two types of balancing techniques introduced in the beginning of the chapter. This plasticity allows the brain system to be malleable and to have the ability to change or adapt, depending on many external and internal variables. The regular handstand and the bananeira both require intensive practice and skill, but when comparing the two, one is able to see the many differences in external and internal factors that allow performers of each handstand technique to successfully maintain different types inverted balances. In a sense, bananeira practitioners and gymnasts have completely different “acquired” equilibrium systems that allow for different highly skilled sensory and perceptual processes. These “acquired” equilibrium systems are a result of vestibular conditioning in different cultural contexts. To successfully maintain balance in an inverted position, one must train equilibrium systems. An example of a training technique that is used with performers who vigorously spin around includes “spotting”. The “spotting” technique includes “holding one’s head steady and visually fixing on a point” in space every so often (p 180). Initially, spotting is a very conscious task that is learned. Eventually, spotting becomes automatic. What are the underlying mechanisms for how this happens? In some spinning capoeira techniques, practitioners do not use the “spotting” technique. This example demonstrates the implementation of other balance-related techniques that are acquired through cultural factors, in addition to the brain’s plasticity. When discussing chapter 6, specifically as performers and practitioners increase their handstand skill levels, it is important to question how external factors become integrated and ingrained by the human body in not only an anthropological sense, but also in a biological sense. How do those external factors become embodied in a more physiological sense? In chapter 6, Downey seamlessly unites the cultural anthropological side with the biological neuroscience side of neuroanthropology by using two culturally and biomechanically different forms of handstands. Finally, Downey states that “as neuroanthropology develops, cultural sites of training will be ideal settings in which to study enculturation” (p 188). What other aspects will be useful to study enculturation as the field of neuroanthropology grows? What other aspects will be useful to study capacities for enculturation?
13 Comments
Casey Fulkerson
2/12/2019 07:35:36 pm
I thought that this was an incredibly interesting chapter to read, especially because the author had trained in capoeira. It is amazing to continue to learn just how malleable the nervous system is and how open it is to changes. You wrote a wonderful review of the chapter and I would like to point out one of Downey’s suggestions as an answer to your question. In the last paragraph on page 188, he mentions studying enculturation at “cultural training sites.” I do not know if this quite fits what he was going for, but maybe it would be worth studying students and teachers at art institutes. Maybe the hours upon hours of training in color and percpetion and depth and exactness has “crept under the skin” so to speak and had some physiological effect.
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Casey Fulkerson
2/26/2019 01:53:06 pm
I feel like Downey embraces a definition of what culture/ being cultural means that allows for greater inclusion. Yes we can include clothes or language or food preferences, but thanks to Downey, we can also include physiological effects that are a result of intentional and patterned change (Downey 187) in behavior and activity. Downey provides the examples of altered equilibrium systems in gymnasts and those that practice capoeira, but this cultural physiological shift can also be seen in other activities such as archery (differing arm lengths) or in weightlifting (heavier bone mass). The changes are not confined to the nervous system.
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Brian Rivera
2/13/2019 07:15:37 am
I found some of the claims about how malleable the nervous system is a bit puzzling. There is a chicken and egg problem introduced with some claims about capoeira. The movement and equilibrium skills necessary for capoeira are possibilities of the nervous system (they come much later than the evolution of the nervous system). By this I mean that capoeira skills were a discovery of what the nervous system is able to do on top of what it must do. Capoeira skills must happen within bounds of possibility (flexibility, equilibrium). Humans are always trying to extend and push these limits but there are limits nevertheless. Wanting to highlight how deeply and non symbolic these practices are, the author makes the claim that enculturation erases the perceived bounds of possibility ("transforming our biographies into our biology"). I think that although this is true, a better conceptualization is to say that bounds are further extended rather than erased. In here for example, practitioners of capoeira didn't erased their ability to walk by "restructuring" their nervous system, rather, they added capoeira to their repertoire.
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Jennifer Fortunato
2/13/2019 08:42:30 am
Thanks for the nice overview of the chapter! I also enjoyed this chapter of the book. I especially enjoyed the part about the plasticity of the nervous system and how that plays into capoeira. One of the most interesting points in this chapter to me was how the circus performer had difficulties with capoeira. The specialization of each discipline preventing the accuracy of movement of another discipline is an example of how the brain/nervous system may be trained to do a specific task, however, cannot perform a seeming similar task. This is a lack of flexibility in the brain to adapt to new circumstances. I find this fascinating due to the brains general ability to adapt to a multitude of circumstances very rapidly.
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Moe Prince
2/13/2019 09:08:31 am
I really enjoyed your overview of the chapter! I find it super interesting how malleable humans can be and in how many different ways they can do it. I thought it was cool that balance can not only be trained for, but there are multiple tactics (for example, gymnastics v. Capoeira). Just because you've trained using a certain tactic, doesn't mean you'll be good at a different one, despite having the same trait as an outcome. It's incredibly interesting.
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Janae Hunter
2/13/2019 09:19:52 am
You wrote an amazing summary of the chapter! This chapter illustrated how complex our bodies are and how we are able to manipulate them to fit the activity that we are doing. I had never heard of Capoeira before, so learning about it this way was extremely informative.
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Janae Hunter
2/27/2019 09:29:18 am
After talking about this in class, I now have a better understanding of what the authors were trying to convey in this chapter. Culture isn't just about the food you eat or the traditions you partake in, it's a complex thing that changes from person to person and emcompasses more than we previously thought. Culture is an important factor in shaping our nervous system and culture can be reflected in the sports and activities we partake in. Capoeira demonstrates fluidity and balance, while gymnastics shows choreographed movements with starting and stopping points.
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Vanessa Marshall
2/20/2019 08:56:42 am
As amazing as the chapter was, I rather agree with Brian’s take. As someone who enjoys running and playing soccer, I know how important the brain and nervous system are to athletic ability. I also know that each sport requires different tasks and that athletes train for those specific tasks. Everyone has the ability to retrain their nervous system through repetition and practice, and capoeira is no different. The issue of balance does provide a unique point here that might make capoeira more applicable to NEUROanthropology than other sports, but I think if neuroanthropologists study any sport requiring any sort of balance while watching other players, then similar results will follow. I think this has less to do with culture, and more about how one uses their body. Granted, how a population on averages uses their body might be correlated to culture, so certain control groups might be beneficial to determine if culture or practice are really the determining factor here. Overall, great review, and I really enjoyed this chapter.
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Jennifer Fortunato
2/26/2019 11:43:06 am
After our conversation in class, I came to a better understanding of what culture is and how it is imbued in this chapter and in neuroanthropology. Downey illustrates how culture becomes embodied and shapes our nervous system. This chapter shows how culture isn't a static thing like I had originally thought but actually creates a range of affordances and abilities through our nervous system. Culture helps creates the variation that there is in our nervous system. Culture is also a more fluid thing than I had thought before our classroom discussion. If you are born into one culture you can learn different cultures and start to embody that culture later on in life as Downey has started to do with Capoeira. The cultural practice affects the nervous system through its influence on perceptual or balancing mechanisms.
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Brian Rivera
2/26/2019 04:14:00 pm
I was interested in learning about the origins of both capoeira and gymnastics. What were the needs of the environment which propelled humans to explore this range of movement? Capoeira is said to have been developed by slave communities in Brazil. It was a martial art disguised as a dancing ritual to hide the fact that an enslaved culture was developing a fighting technique. Some of the movements and kicks carry names from this history. The origins of gymnastics can be traced to military training in ancient Greece. To revisit a question I had raised above, how much can it be said that these styles of movements are adaptation of the nervous system? To a degree they are explorations of affordances of the human body, but they are short lived in human culture compared to other skills like writing and even younger with other adaptations like cooking or agriculture. How do properly frame the context to say whether something is an adaptation of the nervous system?
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Vanessa Marshall
2/26/2019 09:20:31 pm
After our class on 2/20, which I really enjoyed by the way, I think I understand the point of both Ch. 6 (capoeira) and Ch. 7 (taijutsu). Previously I'd read each chapter as more neurologically based, but I couldn't connect the results to anthropologically useful data. Though I think this may have been partially because of how the chapters were written, watching the videos helped me connect the style of the activity to the style of the corresponding culture. Capoeira was very fluid, not choreographed, focused on how individuals moved in relation to the changing environment and other individuals and I think this can be loosely correlated to a more fluid, relaxed, reactive culture. The gymnastics were very choreographed, executing specific powerful moves in sequential order, more individualistic, in a set environment with set stimuli. I feel like I'm stereotyping, but I think an argument can be made that Western (US specifically) culture is more more rule-focused, with a hierarchy based on power, and a set sequence of life events to be followed for success. I didn't get this connection from the chapter, and perhaps that's because it seems to fall prey to stereotypes that are not accurate for an entire culture. But, I do see the value here in how culture influences exercise which influences the brain, and vice versa. I think there's a bidirectionally here that is a positively-reinforced loop, but because of neural plasticity, changes can be made to a certain extent.
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Zach Obaji
2/27/2019 06:46:05 pm
Your blog post really helped me better understand this chapter! I found it a bit difficult to comprehend and understand since this chapter took a different approach compared to the previous ones that we have covered. I enjoyed learning more about the vestibular system. I thought Figure 6.3 on pg. 179 about the vestibular system made the concept more confusing than it actually is. However, the description below the figure helped me understand where they were going with it.
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7/26/2022 02:31:37 am
This is a really great post! Thanks so much for sharing!
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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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