Chewing Accidents

A Phenomenology of Visible and Invisible Everyday Accomplishments

Bibliographic Data

ID2988796
AuthorsSiegfried Saerberg (BODYS - Bochumer Zentrum für Disability Studies, Evangelische Fachhochschule RWL, Bochum, Germany, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume44
Issue5
Pages580-597
Publication date2015-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary Ethnography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0891-2416 • E-ISSN: 1552-5414
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0891241615587380
OpenAlexW1610496124
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited18

This article compares two variations of bodily practices and bodily-grounded orientations and systems of relevance: the blind and the sighted life-worlds. Blindness is conceptualized as a particular style of perception being in no way a deficit but on equal footing with sight. Comparison will show differences and commonalities that may give a deeper insight into how bodily and sensory orientation and practice work in a mundane situation. This situation is feeding behavior and in particular its failure in "Chewing Accidents" focusing on three variations: tongue biting, swallowing a wasp, and biting on a cherry pit. Data are taken from participant observation, focused interviews, and online sources such as blogs and medical forums. By virtue of a detailed phenomenological description of chewing behavior, the article shows that blindness is not the contradiction of sight and vice versa. Invisibility is an element of the everyday life-world, with the latter being dependent on dark areas

Aesthetics · Biting · Blindness · Invisibility · Perception · Sociology · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Posthumanist Ethics and Activism · Psychology · Social Psychology

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