primo levi

Today i went to a great class in which we were discussing about agamben and the holocaust and the quotes form primo levi made me think about this i wrote three years ago. its been a while since i read this tale but the story Difteria still resonates on the issue of the limits of the human and how to think "nature", not only in the dimension of nature as construction, but considering the government of the non human and the difficult boundaries. here it goes

How to overcome the dualistic conception of the body? This is not a question that one can answer easily but I would like to consider some points on it. The division between body and soul – mind has been present in Western philosophy since antiquity and has been sediment in the Cartesian tradition of Science. This distinction has provided an order to understanding the world and permitted an increase of knowledge, from the biological functions of the human body to the existence of the subconscious. Nevertheless, it has been fixed as, in Berger and Lukman (1967), an objective reality (and not a socially created one) that obstructs the understanding of processes which exceed the limits of the body-mind dichotomy.
I consider two main critics to this dichotomy, one that comes from the anthropological perspective from the study of non-western societies. Another source appears in fiction , which I will illustrate with two stories from the Italian chemist/writer Primo Levy (1981, 1996) .
In the first case the study of non-western societies have shown alternative views of the body, which can be considered not only as “case studies”, but also, as recognised by Broch Due (1993), can contribute to theoretic understanding. The articles from Broch Due (1993), Parry (1989) and Bamford (1998) present the body for the Turkana in north Kenia, the Indu indians dieing in Benares, and the Kamea in Papua New Guinea, respectively, as opened systems.
The three articles break the univocal relation of one body – one individual – one identity, therefore creating the divisions; individuals – society, individuals – world. Each of them also show that the relation between these bodies and their society, is not only one of metaphoric representation. This body does not only incarnate the definition of a society’ s identity, it’s boundaries and taxonomies. It also acts as a vehicle for understanding the world, and is projected to the world in which it participates, as illustrated by Broch-Due (op cit). For the three authors, the body is a process in which the definition of the social distinctions are made (Bamford op cit). It is linked and analogous to socio - natural cycles, as the transition from wetness to dryness which is an explanation for human life and for cattle breading (Broch-Due op cit). Finally the body is a labelled entity, constantly threatened by disequilibrium, that must be kept apart from contaminating other bodies that can project particles of themselves. At the same time the body is a mean of reaching a ‘better body’ and finally liberating material existence, “end of the body” and unifying with the divine as (Perry op cit).
In these analyses the body appears as opened to, and containing particles of or being contained by, the surrounding world. For Indu indians the shared particles are with the kin members, are there before birth and after death. The Kamea stress how bodies are inter-connected with one another as a natural condition, such as in the example of boys who do not acquire masculine functions until they are ritually separated from their mother. Turkana integrate in their bodies, qualities shared and exchangeable with the outside.
This is an aspect pointed out by Primo Levy in his tale “Difteria” where he pictures a world were the action of a medicine to avoid transplants rejection has broken the limitation of interspecies reproduction. He focuses on the feelings of a girl with a vegetal ancestor who feels attracted by a cherry tree. By this argument he is proposing that a change in an aspect of the natural rules that fix limits to reproduction could create a interconnected world. One where animals humans and plants share not only genes, but also feelings, moods and personalities. Nevertheless he does not break with the idea of individuality, in that he disestablishes body-mind and nature-culture divisions. His view has a connection with the Turkana’s one as he is talking of opened interconnected systems.
In the tale “Carbon” (1996) he follows the adventure of a molecule of carbon from earth, experimenting with the process of combustion, going to the sea, the air, and becoming a part of a living organism. The molecule becomes the ink of the last point of the printed page of the book you are reading. Here again he puts into question the univocal and unchanged identity of things by reminding that the elements are fluctuating from animate into inanimate entities and the limits among them are just as different moments in a process. Each of the three articles is connected by an emphasis upon process rather than finite states. I would argue that in using a fictive context, Levi is avoiding the dualistic bases of science. As art is considered to be a restricted area of Western “expression” but less regarded as “knowledge”, it does not yet challenge the scientific conventions.
In conclusion I consider the work of anthropologists, and the contributions from literary writers, contribute to the solutions of the problems the body-mind, nature- culture, individual-society divisions bring. This can shed light on the way a society’s relations are created and recreated, challenged and changed, and remind us that this division was a social construction in the first place.

References

Bamford S, 1998 To eat for another: taboo and the elicitationh of bodily from among the Kamea of Papua New Guinea” in Bodies and persons. M. Lambek and Starthern eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University press pp. 158-177

Berger P Luckmann, T. 1967. The social construction of reality : a treatise in sociology of knowledge. Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday.

Broch- Due V. 1993. “Making meaning out of matter: perceptions of sex, gender and bodies among the Turkana” in Carved flesh, cast selves: gendered symbols and social practices V. Broch- Due, T. Bleig, I Rudie eds., Providence RI: Berg, pp. 53-82

Levi P. 1996. The periodic table [translated by Raymond Rosenthal], New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1996.

Levi P 1981 Lilít e altri racconti. Torino : Einaudi.

Saer J. J. 1997. El concepto de ficción. Buenos Aires : Ariel.

Parry J 1989 “The end of the body” in: Fragments for a history of the human body, Michel Feher ed.NY: Zone. Pp. 491-517