body mapping as a methodology for fleshing out embodied learning
As requested, here are the written prompts that were beside the body map (which, unfortunately, we didn't get around to exploring). The hope was that this activity would get you thinking about the narratives that emerge from your own bodily interaction with another culture’s norms and ways of knowing and being as vital paths to knowledge.
While in Pang, we are likely to experience a high degree of embodied cognition through a lived and interactive encounter with others' cultural norms and values. Outsiders to communities learn anew to sit, talk, stand, walk, dance and labour at previously untried tasks. The learning that happens in these spaces is often greatly contrasted with the more sedentary practices of the academic...
The Laboring Body
What physical tasks made you feel most competent?
Incompetent?
Consider your bodily introduction with that of the bodies of animals.
In what ways did you learn how to execute these tasks?
Think about the process by which you learned to erect a wall-tent; preparing food for 40+ people; scrap, stomp, stretch, soften wash dry seal skin; make palaugaq.
What physical competencies were re-awakened that you had forgotten about?
What else did you observe about your learning process?
The Body Moving/Sitting
Have you found yourself, consciously or unconsciously, adopting, performing or imitating bodily movements?
Have you found the ways you would normally move/sit/work transform kinesthetically? (your pacing & speed of gait, travel on tundra vs. pavement; being on the boat)
Do you feel the ways your body moves/sits/works has been under scrutiny or instructed?
Consider the games.
Consider dancing.
Describe a moment of embarrassment and how this was productive or unproductive of new learning.
Gestures/Expressions
Consider your use of facial expressions, and even your breathing, rhythms in your speech, rhythms in the way other people move.
Did you find yourself adopting any of these?
What did you observe that surprised or interested you in this domain?
The Senses
Consider your first taste of mukktaq, uujuq, blood from seal meat; the texture; other surprising odours that you experienced? : )
What did you involuntarily absorb through any or all of your senses?
Consider the smells you’ve encountered:
Pheromones; the smell of your body and hair after going longer than usual without a scrub; ocean air; the smell of someone’s home
The Body at Risk
Learning through the body can be a source of pain and illness – did you experience any unforeseen risks?
New sources of pain, illness, injury?
New-found muscles?
Close calls?
Forms of Healing?
Was this productive of a positive change within you?
What will you carry with you from this experience?