Embodying intimacy in everyday interaction: A biolinguistic study of long‐term partners in the Southeastern United States

Abstract

Drawing on linguistic and biocultural anthropological perspectives on embodiment, this paper advances a “biolinguistic” approach to ethnographic research on intimacy, attending simultaneously to the co‐constitutive interactive, psychophysiological, and phenomenological processes that emerge in everyday embodied interaction between long‐term, cohabitating romantic partners. Through concurrent attention to natural interactions captured during video ethnography and moment‐to‐moment shifts in heart‐rate variability, this study complements and complicates existing psychological, communication, and anthropological research on intimacy. Three case‐studies of long‐term couples residing in the Southeastern United States demonstrate how neither pure psychophysiology nor pure linguistic analysis fully encapsulates potential patterns of intimacy among them. Rather, this microanalytical, biolinguistic approach to the complexities of body and language interplay, in treating embodiment and interaction as bidirectional phenomena, emphasizes that meanings and enactments of intimacy might look different for each couple and can change over time in complex ways that index couples’ enduring orientations towards various cultural and relational norms.

Neuroanthropology of shamanic trance: a case study with a ritual specialist from Mexico

“…Our work proposes a neuroanthropological approach to understanding shamanic trance. We understand that pure psychophysiological or anthropological analysis is insufficient and that dual interpretations are necessary to comprehend human behavior manifested in specific spaces ( Pritzker et al, 2023 ). Furthermore, as proposed in the case of Candomblé, in Brazil ( Seligman, 2010 ), we understand that the healer (or shaman) represents a “self” that crosses mind–body interactions and that cultural practices can influence these interactions within healing dynamics.…”

“…A future neuroanthropological path could encompass more and varied elements of the shaman’s own culture – for example, the participant or patient being a member of the shaman’s community with a greater affinity of traditions and beliefs. Currently, it would be possible to adopt ambulatory methods, such as portable EEG instruments, to perform recordings in the shaman’s own spaces and thus achieve more ecological information ( Pritzker et al, 2023 ). Likewise, given that the shaman’s work fundamentally involves healing in the shaman–patient relationship, the possible electroencephalographic synchronization between both and during the process could be investigated and integrated with the people’s narratives of healing.…”