Crossan writes about the body as a representation of society. In class on Tuesday, we briefly discussed the modern American attitude towards body modification, which is primarily tolerant. However, this has not always been so. In the relatively recent past, a person who chose to pierce her nose (without cultural or religious justification) was typically seen as a deviant, undesirable in polite company. Even today, some of that stigma endures - if someone applies for a job as a teacher, and has visible tattoos, he will most likely not get the job even if he is otherwise quite well qualified.
One thing that I find particularly interesting about this attitude towards body modification is that it is more negative as a rule in areas which are typically more conservative in a political and social sense. This would strengthen Crossan's assertion that attitudes toward the body represent attitudes in society as a whole; conservative ideology emphasises maintaining traditional values and rejecting outside influence on the structure of society.
However, there are some societies which, while mostly quite conservative, do endorse some manner of body modification. This is not necessarily evidence against Crossan's assertions; such societies usually only approve of very specific types of body modification. In a society wherein, let us say, eyebrow piercing was common and approved of, a person who pierced zir ears might well attract the same negative attention as zhe would in a society which endorsed absolutely no body modification.
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