Provincializing bodyminds, decolonizing disability

Bibliographic Data

ID4589396
AuthorsGiorgio Brocco (0000-0002-8372-894X, University of Vienna), L A Meek (0000-0002-8510-6255, Okanagan University College), Jane L Saffitz (0000-0001-6207-0862, Denison University)
Year2025
Volume376
Pages118048
Publication date2025-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Science & Medicine (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0277-9536 • E-ISSN: 1873-5347
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118048
PMID40279781
OpenAlexW4409147326
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited49

In critical disability studies and crip theory, a key intervention has been to challenge Cartesian dualism by using terms such as bodyminds, body-minds, mind/bodies, and other hybrids. While the concept of "bodyminds" integrates physical and cognitive experiences and challenges dualistic thinking, it has been criticized by scholars for prioritizing Eurocentric notions of the mind and subjectivity over other understandings of bodily normality and difference. Drawing on ten years of ethnographic research in Tanzania, this article argues that the concept of "bodyminds" remains rooted in a Eurocentric framework that overlooks the relational and communal understandings of disability prevalent in Tanzania. We build on Sylvia Wynter's critique of "the figure of Man" to show how dominant disability discourses and practices often overemphasize secular and biological definitions of disability, marginalizing alternative ways of being human. Our ethnographic research highlights the diverse and relational experiences of disability among our Tanzanian interlocutors by thinking with Swahili concepts like mitandao ya jamii" (social relationships), utofauti (difference), and kawaida (normality). We conclude by urging scholars to expand frameworks of bodily non-normativity beyond Eurocentric models and toward a more inclusive comprehension of ideas and experiences of normality and difference globally

Political science · Sociology · Disability Rights and Representation · Gender Studies · Medicine · Gerontology

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